QOTD: Where You Wanna Put That Pork?

by Jack Baruth

Published: November 3rd, 2017

Regardless of whether you like or loathe the Trump Administration, you have to admit it has a different view of what’s “on the table” than its immediate predecessors did. EV credits. NAFTA. Global trade agreements. Tariffs. It is, to quote a popular movie of 1977, a period of civil war, only the war is being fought on the battleground of public opinion.

There will be winners and losers out of this new normal, the same way there were winners and losers as a result of EPA, DOT, and NHTSA regulations that began under Nixon and steadily increased in power until Ronald Reagan came into office and deaded shit, as Ja Rule would say. I get the feeling that everything is up for grabs, whether it’s the chicken tax or CAFE.

Let’s say you were appointed “car czar” by President Trump. What would you do with that power?

I’ll tell you what I would do, just for the hell of it. I would ask my labor experts to tell me how closely different countries adhered to American standards of workplace safety, pollution regulations, and other health-and-welfare metrics. Then I’d use that to apply an adjustment tariff to automobiles and automobile parts that came into this country. If they say Germany is the same or better than America on all those standards, then I’d apply a tariff of zero. If they tell me China is the worst, then I’d apply a 100-percent tariff. Mexico, Indonesia, and other providers of motor vehicles (Danger Girl’s Yamaha R3 was made in Thailand!) would fall somewhere in the middle.

I’d keep the EV rebate, but it would only apply to domestically produced vehicles. I’d eliminate the light-truck distinction for CAFE and I’d impose a fleet average of 30 mpg, which would take a few years to meet. I would ban diesel engines from use on public roads until I was satisfied that the harmful effect of particulates had been thoroughly investigated by the EPA. The same might have to go for direct injection, sadly.

Finally, I would adopt a special regulatory class for vehicles weighing under 1,500 pounds dry. They’d be exempt from crash regulations and they would only have to meet motorcycle emissions levels. That should incentivize manufacturers to create smaller, lighter vehicles for everyday use.

Those are my stupid ideas. What are yours?

[Image: 410(k) 2012/ Flickr ( CC BY-SA 2.0)]

#EVTaxCredit #GovernmentInvolvement #GovernmentSubsidies #PorkBarrelPolitics

Jack Baruth

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2 of 58 comments

Arach on Nov 06, 2017

Honestly? I'd remove CAFE completely, and cut back on EPA funding. I'd remove 100% of the ethanol subsidies. I'd raise the gas tax (or investigate getting rid of the gas tax and putting in a massive tire tax, which makes sense if you think about it, but people would find loop holes) I'd stop the allowance of gas-tax proceeds to go into the general accounting accounts, and allow it to be used only for road infrastructure And I'd set up a charging standard for the country, and assure every gov't operated rest area had fast chargers.

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Tekdemon on Nov 06, 2017

I guess you really want the Detroit 3 to need another bailout or something since that's all your suggested plan would accomplish, bankrupting the American auto industry. Tariffs aren't a one way street, any country you slap tariffs on will slap you right back. Do you think American car companies could compete with German car companies if American cars were all hit with 100% taxes in China in return for the same rate on their cars, but German cars were hit with 0% taxes here and 2.5% in China? The German car companies would love it for sure, so I guess your plan is to invest in VW shares before implementing this?

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