Socialized Health Care in the USA

[kandrathe]

Right. He advocates fuel efficiency standards, and thinks there are opportunities in technological development to create jobs. He even believes, shockingly, that government might offer incentives to create hybrid cars.

Taking out my Cato institute decoder ring, I see that this reads "I am planning to destroy GM's finances by undermining the capitalist system! I will then use the levers of government spending to enact a hostile takeover of the company in the name of Al Gore, dark lord of Envirosocialism! Muahahahahaha!"*

It's all so clear from what he wrote.

Well, Cato is hardly fringe. But, I find GM's latest sudden changes in direction telling. In his book, he also says that SUV's and pickup trucks have got to go.

The old saying goes; if it walks like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it is probably a duck. If you read his book he says exactly what he planned to do, and now we watch as it unfolds before our very eyes.

On the campaign trail, he said, <blockquote>"Is a huge opportunity but we've got have leadership from Washington, the same way we had leadership when Kennedy said we're going to the moon, we want to invest what we need to make it happen and there are all sorts of spin offs benefits from that. So that's what we want to do on global warming here in the United States.

We are also, though, going have to negotiate with other countries. China, India, in particular Brazil. They are growing so fast that they are consuming more and more energy, and pretty soon, if their carpet footprint even approaches ours, we're goners. That's part of the reason why we've got to make the investment; we've got to lead by example. If we lead by example -- if we lead by example, then we can actually export and license technology that have been invented here to help them deal with their growth pain. But keep in mind, you're right. We can't tell them, don't grow. We can't -- drive our SUVs and you know, eat as much as we want and keep our homes on you know, 72 degrees at all times, and whether we're living in the desert or we're living in the tundra, and then just expect that every other country's going say OK.

You guys go ahead and keep on using 25 percent of the world's energy. Even though you only account for 3 percent of the population, and we'll be fine. Don't worry about us. That's not -- that's not leadership. That's not going to happen. And that's, by the way, why, for example, I had this big argument with Senator Clinton and McCain about the gas tax, holiday. Which was an example. That's how Washington works. It's not thinking long term. It's thinking, how do we get through the next election?

And, you know, John McCain, for him to come to Oregon as an environmental president, but his big strategy is to do more drilling and to have a gas tax holiday for three months, that's a phony solution. You know, you can't -- John McCain has consistently been opposed to fuel efficiency standards, raising fuel efficiency standards on cars. How is he going to meet any of these targets? Maybe he's imagining it the way he did imaging getting out of the war in Iraq. You know? We -- we need somebody with a plan. And who is willing to talk to the American people about these difficulties and how we're going to get through these challenges together. All right? OK. All right. OK. Over here."</blockquote>So, your know, get used to not driving your SUV because they don't make them anymore. And, you know, you don't get to have your home thermostat set at a comfortable temperature anymore. We'll just crank up the cost of energy so high that no one can afford to drive anymore, or live too far south, or too far north. Policy genius. Like I said earlier, get ready to join the third world in subsistence agriculture to get by day by day.