OK, it’s official. I’m fed up.
I never thought I’d live long enough to see the headline a friend sent me from the business section of the Detroit News, but there it was in all its oxymoronic glory: “GM's Akerson Pushing for Higher Gas Taxes.”
According to the article, General Motors CEO Dan Akerson would like to see the federal gas tax boosted as much as $1 a gallon to nudge consumers toward more fuel-efficient cars.
What? Did I just read what I thought I did?
The article goes on to say that Akerson believes that a government-imposed tax hike will prompt more people to buy small cars and do more good for the environment than forcing automakers to comply with higher gas-mileage standards.
At this point, I’m fuming. I’m not sure which galls me more, hearing the CEO of a company attempting to impact public policy for the benefit of his company or the insensitivity of a shill for the federal government doing the dirty work for an administration as payback for their bail out.
Here we sit awash in deficits, massive unemployment, a struggling economy and the head of General Motors thinks raising gas taxes is the right thing to do.
I have a friend who is a laid-off information technology professional. He’s driving a school bus to make payments on his Chevrolet Suburban. I bravely asked him if he thought Akerson’s plan made sense. Decorum dictates that his reply not be published. He said if he had it to do over, knowing where the economy was headed and how it would affect him, he probably would not have purchased the Suburban. But his reality is that he did purchase it.
Like all of us, my friend is paying twice as much as he paid for gas two years ago while living on a much lower income. He is struggling just to make his car payments and meet his other obligations. However, Akerson’s proposed tax hike on gasoline could push him beyond his ability to do so. I wonder how many millions of other Americans are in similar situations.
In times like these it’s hard to follow the logic of politicians who are hell-bent on raising taxes. But it’s much harder to understand why a CEO of a major corporation would suggest implementation of an onerous tax that could devastate millions of working and unemployed Americans.
There used to be clarity as to who would be on which side of an issue like this one. The government grows itself (the public sector) by raising taxes on the private sector, which does everything it can to reduce its tax bills. But now the window of clarity is fogging up. With the government’s recent intrusion into the private sector via ownership in banks, insurance companies, car companies and green technology companies, among others, it puts people running these public/private companies in a difficult straddle as to which master to serve.
What we have to remember is that all those billions of dollars in bail outs, buy outs and subsidies come from us. When leaders of once-proud businesses, titans of industry, fearless decision makers aren’t sure whom or what they’re working for, they make strange decisions. How else do you explain the chairman and CEO of GM recommending a huge tax increase on the lifeblood of his company?
Excuse me…OUR company.
OK, it’s official. I’m fed up.
I never thought I’d live long enough to see the headline a friend sent me from the business section of the Detroit News, but there it was in all its oxymoronic glory: “GM's Akerson Pushing for Higher Gas Taxes.”
According to the article, General Motors CEO Dan Akerson would like to see the federal gas tax boosted as much as $1 a gallon to nudge consumers toward more fuel-efficient cars.
What? Did I just read what I thought I did?
The article goes on to say that Akerson believes that a government-imposed tax hike will prompt more people to buy small cars and do more good for the environment than forcing automakers to comply with higher gas-mileage standards.
At this point, I’m fuming. I’m not sure which galls me more, hearing the CEO of a company attempting to impact public policy for the benefit of his company or the insensitivity of a shill for the federal government doing the dirty work for an administration as payback for their bail out.
Here we sit awash in deficits, massive unemployment, a struggling economy and the head of General Motors thinks raising gas taxes is the right thing to do.
I have a friend who is a laid-off information technology professional. He’s driving a school bus to make payments on his Chevrolet Suburban. I bravely asked him if he thought Akerson’s plan made sense. Decorum dictates that his reply not be published. He said if he had it to do over, knowing where the economy was headed and how it would affect him, he probably would not have purchased the Suburban. But his reality is that he did purchase it.
Like all of us, my friend is paying twice as much as he paid for gas two years ago while living on a much lower income. He is struggling just to make his car payments and meet his other obligations. However, Akerson’s proposed tax hike on gasoline could push him beyond his ability to do so. I wonder how many millions of other Americans are in similar situations.
In times like these it’s hard to follow the logic of politicians who are hell-bent on raising taxes. But it’s much harder to understand why a CEO of a major corporation would suggest implementation of an onerous tax that could devastate millions of working and unemployed Americans.
There used to be clarity as to who would be on which side of an issue like this one. The government grows itself (the public sector) by raising taxes on the private sector, which does everything it can to reduce its tax bills. But now the window of clarity is fogging up. With the government’s recent intrusion into the private sector via ownership in banks, insurance companies, car companies and green technology companies, among others, it puts people running these public/private companies in a difficult straddle as to which master to serve.
What we have to remember is that all those billions of dollars in bail outs, buy outs and subsidies come from us. When leaders of once-proud businesses, titans of industry, fearless decision makers aren’t sure whom or what they’re working for, they make strange decisions. How else do you explain the chairman and CEO of GM recommending a huge tax increase on the lifeblood of his company?
Excuse me…OUR company.
