If they can’t run a brothel
TOM BURGUM
Contributing Columnist
burgum@lbknews.com
I had pretty well decided President Obama and the Congress are on the right track with the proposed $825 billion stimulus package even though it meant increased government incursion in our economy. I was even prepared to jump on the fuel−economy bandwagon in the name of energy independence. That the bandwagon was driven by federal and state governments rather than industry was troubling but the lure of green energy leading us into the broad sun-lite uplands of environmental responsibility was so alluring it overrode even my unhealthy skepticism.
It was then that an e-mail from a friend in North Dakota scrambled my thinking. He recalled, “Back in 1990, the government seized the Mustang Ranch brothel in Nevada for tax evasion and, as required by law, tried to run it. The government failed and it closed.” My friend then made his point. “Now we are asked to trust the economy of the United States and $850 billion to a pack of nit-wits who couldn’t make money running a brothel and selling booze.”
He then asked me, “Doesn’t that make you a bit nervous?” I confess, yes, it does make me a bit nervous. Then I read the summary the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) report on the proposed stimulus package, a report that should cause any number of us to be even more nervous.
President Obama, during a press conference, announced, “We must move at once, [to pass the stimulus package] each day the picture darkens.” Well, if the CBO report is accurate, it is going to get a lot darker because nothing is going to happen very fast.
The CBO officials, all of whom are appointed by the Democrats, stated less than 40 percent of the stimulus money would filter into the economy over a 19-month period. They didn’t think this should surprise anyone because there has always been a notable lag between big funding increases and spending.
Seems the government will spend only $26 billion this year, $110 billion in 2010, and $103 billion in 2011. The rest will be put on the table sometime before 2011 and 2019 which is, if experts are to be believed, after the recession is over.
It certainly is government spending but much of it certainly doesn’t have anything to do with stimulus.
On Tuesday morning, the Sarasota Herald Tribune announced with some fanfare, “Obama Reopens Door for Crist’s Emissions Vision.” Florida Governor Charles Crist envisions a CAFÉ standard of 43 mph — estimated average fuel efficiency by 2020.
The Tribunes headline referred to President Obama’s announcement that there will soon be stricter limits on greenhouse gas emissions from cars and ordered EPA to allow states to set stricter limits than those imposed by Congress. Governor Schwarzenegger of California has his own vision and announced with enthusiasm, “California now has a partner in Washington.”
I am not anxious to rain on any of Charlie Crist’s visions but I wondered if the President, Crist or Schwarzenegger had advanced automotive engineering degrees or are they just throwing numbers at a wall hoping some will stick. The vision seems to favor small, fuel efficient vehicles that environmentalists, President Obama, Crist and Schwarzenegger, among others, firmly believe Americans desperately want to purchase.
Facts, as Mark Twain used to say, are uncomfortable things once known. Well, the facts are in and they don’t support the lunge toward a 43 mpg CAFE standard.
Industry officials, quoted in a Wall Street Journal Op−Ed piece, believe that:
“…extended−range, all−electric vehicles like the Volt will account for no more than five percent of the North American market by 2020 (assuming last year’s peak oil prices and $7,500 in tax credits for electric car buyers.) Hybrids, around for almost a decade, today command less than two percent of the market.”
There is certain dishonesty in the government push for 43 mpg CAFE standards. Every President since Richard Nixon and every Congress during the last 60 years has known that driving habits will only change when gasoline becomes prohibitively expensive. But, no President or Congress has been, or is now willing to take the political risk inherent in raising gas taxes to that level. Like Gov. Slick — err, Crist, they claim environmental credentials by badgering the automotive industry into producing cars no one wants to buy.
As one GM executive said to the WSJ, “With fuel prices declining, government mandates that auto makers build highly fuel-efficient cars will be no more effective than combating obesity by forcing clothing manufacturers to make only small sizes. It puts us in the industry in the position where we are at war with the consumer.”
GM will survive, of course, as long as Congress is willing to bail out the United Auto Workers union.
There is one glimmer of hope in all this. Since the dawn of time attempts to eradicate prostitution have failed. Now we have a solution. Nationalize the brothels and street-walkers. Put the government in charge. Prostitution would be but a memory within a decade. Just ask the folks who used to work at the Mustang Ranch.
