CAFE' STANDARDS...NOTHING TO DO WITH WHERE NOT TO EAT!

Well, talk about contradictions! On one hand, Obama says he wants to see the automobile industry recover from its slump and survive...on the other hand, he seems to be doing everything he can to flush it down the toilet.
The only segment of the industry that could possibly be helped by the new 35.5 mpg requirement would be the Yugo...but they quit making it years ago. Why? Nobody wanted the damn things because, even though they got great mileage, they putt'ed along the highway (assuming you had the courage..no, stupidity, to try to operate it at highway speeds), and folded like aluminum foil in a collision.
Now Obama is telling the auto manufacturers that they have to build the American equivalent of Yugos, completely ignoring the fact that a car like that is not what the American motoring public wants. In order to achieve the newly required mileage, the new cars would have to be considerably lighter, with smaller, less powerful engines, making them more likely to be involved in an accident and the occupants less likely to survive. These new "energy efficient" death traps will cost the consumer, on average, $1,300 more to purchase. A lot to pay for a vehicle greatly inferior to today's automobiles.
Environmentalists claim that the new standards will reduce carbon-dioxide tailpipe emissions by 30% by 2016. However, increasing fuel efficiency reduces the per-mile cost of operating a vehicle, which in turn increases the number of miles driven, thereby negating, or reducing any benefit gained from the new CAFE' standards. According to auto club statistics, between 1970-2001, the US made cars almost 50% more efficient, but the average number of miles a person drives doubled. So, we in effect, do nothing to decrease carbon-dioxide emissions entering the atmosphere, and put the American motorist at far greater risk of injury and death.
Americans will be paying more for cars and continuing to die in ever-greater numbers on the road, all for a reduction of less than one-half of one percent of man-made greenhouse gas emissions. It almost seems as though hardcore tree-huggers want to save the planet by killing people, but are only accomplishing the killing part.
As an aside, the higher price of these new "ObamaMobiles" will cause lower income people to continue to drive their existing lower mileage, higher emissions cars...but wait!!
What a surprise...the Democratic Congress is already considering a "cash-for-clunkers" program to encourage trade-ins. The "cash-for-clunkers" program will help the Democrats patch the flaw in the plan, but will also help save UAW jobs so that the Auto Workers Union members can continue to vote (and we know how they vote).
Besides, forcing the poor into the ObamaMobile will kill more people, but that doesn't seem to be a concern...it's been shown for years that dead people tend to vote Democratic!

We must STOP THE MADNESS!