Tuesday, August 05, 2008

O'Electric

Obama: I'd guarantee $4 billion to retool auto industry | Freep.com | Detroit Free Press: "...He called for $4 billion in guaranteed loans and tax credits to help U.S. automakers retool for more fuel-efficient cars and to develop batteries for plug-in hybrids that get up to 150 m.p.g. The new breed of automobiles would fetch a $7,000 federal tax credit for buyers.

He predicted that 1 million plug-in hybrids -- such as the Chevrolet Volt set to debut in 2010 -- would be produced within six years. In March, Morgan Stanley estimated that U.S. plug-in hybrid sales would not top 1 million annually before 2020..."

That's nice, but how many times do the taxpayers have to bail-out the auto industry? Shouldn't our tax dollars be getting percentages of the companies? Yeah, I know they pay taxes, and I'm not really opposed to this idea, but we need to think clearly about which tax policies we want to chase. The nation is in the hole and we can't afford to give away billions overseas and billions at home.

I wonder what kind of subsidized health care we could create with a few billion.

No comments: