The Nuts and Bolts of Volts and Dolts

By William L. Garvin

Since there is nothing more important in the political stratosphere than what Rush Limbaugh said, you may not have noticed that Government Motors is suspending production of the Chevy Volt. They will shut down for five weeks and lay off 1,300 workers because sales have fallen far short of expectations. Despite a $7,500 government incentive (which the President wants to raise to $10,000!), the company only sold 7,671in all of 2011. The automotive pipeline is now glutted with unwanted, overpriced Volts. By the way, GM noted that the average household income for Volt owners was $175,000. Why is the government subsidizing them?

The Volt is a volume giant compared to the Fisker which has only produced 2,000 vehicles despite a half-billion dollars in taxpayer subsidies. Since the price tag is over $100,000 for starters, it’s no wonder that Leonardo DiCaprio was one of the first owners and Ashton Kutcher and Justin Bieber quickly followed suit. You can imagine what the average household income is for those folks. Nonetheless, they also get the $7,500 government tax credit. Compounding the absurdity, Michigan Representative Sander Levin and Senator Carl Levin, have proposed DOUBLING the tax credit for these elite members of the 1%. After experiencing numerous production delays, battery recalls and software glitches, founder and CEO Thomas Fisker is now being replaced by Tom LaSorda, a Chrysler/General Motors “veteran executive.” Good luck with that.

In the midst of the Constitutional Contraception Crisis, you may also have missed the $1.4 billion Department of Energy loan to Prologis to place solar panels on their commercial buildings. Prologis is worth about $43.3 billion and operates in 22 countries so it’s unclear as to why they need our taxpayer dollars. However, what is of even more concern is that the “only supplier” of their first phase of installation was the now bankrupt Solyndra. Energy Secretary Steven Chu said the Prologis loan had nothing to do with Solyndra. Right. Since Solyndra went bankrupt because their products were overpriced, why would any successful international company overpay when they could get the same products on the open market at a much cheaper price?

This is the same Steven Chu that said in 2008, “Somehow we have to figure out how to boost the price of gasoline to the levels in Europe.” In the United Kingdom, it’s $8.06; in Italy, $8.17; in Greece, $8.45; and in Norway, it’s $9.28. In Venezuela, it lingers around twelve cents per gallon and in war torn Libya, it’s still only $.52 per gallon. Of course, Secretary Chu doesn’t want to admit that oil and gasoline hasn’t gone up as much as the dollar has declined in value! Much of this is due to Chairman Bernanke printing and pumping billions of dollars into the economy. Then again, why worry? President Obama noted: “You’ve got a bunch of algae out there. If we can figure out how to make energy out of that, we’ll be doing alright.” That’s really “going green!”

Don’t worry that home prices declined another 4% and hit new lows in 2011. Don’t worry about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac losing $16.9 billion last year. Go ahead—give them another $4.6 billion. Don’t worry about Abound Solar closing down production despite its $400 million taxpayer loan guarantee. Don’t worry about First Solar losing $413 million last quarter—we loaned them $1.46 billion for one project and $646 million for another. Don’t worry about them lowering their sales forecast and firing their CEO. Forget about the $750,000 we’re spending to build a soccer field for the 179 prisoners in Guantanamo Bay.

Instead, let’s focus on why the government should provide free contraception for a thirty-year old student activist. Let’s focus on the poorly chosen words of a radio talk show host. Let’s ignore his apologies. Let’s also ignore the vicious, crude, and obscene language that Bill Maher and his ilk have used to demean Sarah Palin. Let’s ignore the fact that they have NEVER apologized. Let’s ignore the President ordering churches to violate their religious principles. Let’s ignore the President ordering private companies to provide products “free of charge.” Ignorance is liberal bliss.