Forward into the Past
Well:
Elon Musk is known as a bigtime Barack Obama donor, and he is hoping he will get his money’s worth. Musk thinks (hopes? knows?) that government largesse for electric cars will continue unabated during the second term.
“I think that we can expect at least that things will continue as they have,” Musk told Reuters. “I wouldn’t expect it to get any worse for electric vehicles, hopefully it will get a little better.”
Not surprisingly, Musk also is for raising the federal tax credit for electric cars to as much as $10,000. Tesla received a $465 million loan from the U.S. Department of Energy in early 2010.
Sure, why not? “Mandate” to give more borrowed dollars to big campaign donors. “Mandate” to build more cars Americans won’t buy. “Mandate” for further bailouts for companies stuck with cars they cannot sell.
If the stakes weren’t so high, it would be tempting to tell John Boehner to just go on and do what he really wants to do — and give President Obama everything he wants. Boehner would be relieved of the duty of having to stand for something, and Obama would be burdened with his own addenda, like throwing a drowning man an anvil.
However, we are talking the real economy and real lives and really shattered hopes and dreams of millions of real Americans. It seems petty to chuck them whole in the lefty blender just to prove a point.
But, man, is it ever tempting.
Tempting, true, but then if the GOP does that, the left will then just accuse the GOP of making the ensuing whole mess themselves, and the media will faithfully repeat those lies, as most people are still too passive about their news (read: lazy and/or apathetic) to find out the truth for themselves. Case in point: the left trumpeted their success in forcing banks to give home loans to irresponsible people who had no means of paying them back. Then, the housing crisis occurred (as predicted), and it became the big-bad-banks’ fault while the Democrats involved escaped accountability. The GOP is damned if they do, damned if they don’t.
“Musk also is for raising the federal tax credit for electric cars to as much as $10,000. ”
I thought we couldn’t afford tax cuts. No more tax credits for electric vehicles, we just can’t afford them.
I have no idea why Musk likes Obamma. However, he is young enough to have learned no history, been brainwashed by the non-technical Marxist professors he encountered in college and is a billionaire, so not really effected by public policy. He gets huge credit in my book for SpaceX. As an ex NASA engineer, I can say he is doing what NASA should have done after Apollo and did not do for 40 years. As for Telsa, my business partner owns one of the first model. The car costs 100K, the battery costs 35K and lasts for about 100K miles. It’s a 2 seat Lotus. Does anyone see the problem in this cost structure? The gas tank is 1/3 the price of the car. Also, every time my buddy gets in and out of it he lets out a groan. It’s low to ground as Lotus would be and he is in his 60′s.
I look at Telsa as a paid beta test by rich folks. Nothing wrong with that. Lets us see how electric cars that are somewhat useful play out in the real world. If I had 100K to spend on a car, I can think of several other cars I would rather have, but to each his own.
No one gave a rip about Obama’s horrid agenda and miserable record last week. What makes you think anyone will four years from now? Whomever the Dems hork up as their 2016 candidate will look like a colossus compared to Obama. And the Dems hold the patent on the “8 years of failed policy” meme.
We are well and truly boned.
Stephen: Don’t expect anything to change before there is real pain felt widely. The electorate remains unready to address the underlying structural flaws in the entitlement system. Keep preaching: the day will come.
Reagan most likely would not have been elected had the country not been in pain unlike anything felt now. Unemployment levels are not in themselves enough. For those old enough to have lived them, the 70′s were horrible because inflation affected everyone; not just some. Taking an effective 25% pay-cut, as many did at the time, concentrated the minds of many. The pain is not yet sufficient.
Musk is the guy who has probably done the most to reduce the size of government since the end of the Cold War, by cutting the balls off NASA. He may be an Obama fanboy, but he’s the sort of Obama fanboy I want more of.