“Doubling down on industrial policy failure, the administration decides to bump up the taxpayer subsidy for Government Motors’ touted electric car. Who said its range wasn’t enough to drive us to the poor house?”
Investor’s Business Daily editorializes:
Tucked away in the recesses of President Obama’s 2013 budget, a budget that Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid says he will not bring to the Senate floor, is a nugget that speaks volumes about the troubles we’re in:
While delaying the Keystone XL pipeline, the administration plans to increase the subsidy for the Chevy Volt and other “new technology” vehicles to $10,000 per car.
“We give consumers the incentive to buy these cars,” White House economic chief Gene Sperling said at a budget briefing where he announced the 33% increase from the current $7,500 subsidy. The budget document, titled “Investing in Our Future,” includes a goal of putting “1 million advanced technology vehicles on the road (by) 2015″…
One has to understand, these people are ideologues; i.e. their thought processes have little to do with the realities of the free market and much more to do with their intellectual visions and the Union cronies that lavishly fund their political futures. For them, despite mountains of historical evidence of the abject failures of these endeavors, they cannot get over their precious and stubbornly held belief that the government drives the economy. If that ever gets permanently discredited they’ve got nothing, their life dedicated to this nonsense is reduced to nothing and worst of all, they become irrelevant. They will do anything, stoop to whatever nefarious strategy necessary, to prevent this. The ends justify the means, any means.
Since 2009 the UAW owns 50% of GM after the Obama administration defrauded the bondholders. The Chevy Volt is getting significant competition from other auto manufacturers. From all accounts these cars are as good or significantly better than the Volt. If Obama and company are such avid supporters of “Green” why not taxpayer subsidies for the purchase of electric or hybrid electric vehicle from any reputable manufacturer? Answer? The UAW. And why taxpayer subsidies at all?
There is a better way to do this as is true of every problem America faces today and step #1 is get rid of this self absorbed, narcissistic bunch of incompetent meddlers in 2012. It’s not the total solution but it is a necessary first step to avoid becoming the north American equivalent of Greece.
The Volt is not even worth $10,000. Another example of government being clueless and wasting tax dollars.
The Volt is not even new technology. We have 50 year old electric vehicles in the UK called milk floats.
Those who do not learn from history are probably just planning to get in on the graft:
http://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/02/us/costly-plan-to-promote-alternative-fuels-jolts-arizona.html?pagewanted=all&src=pm
$10G buys this; Stuck on the road no juice -10°F Frozen stiff stiff. But I was environmentally friendly.
At a $10,000 per car subsidy, and 1,000,000 of these boondoggles on the road, that’s $10,000,000,000 in subsidies. There are 254 million cars registered in the US. That means one car out of 254 is projected to be an “advanced technology vehicle”. So $10 Billion buys exactly what?