RC Macaulay wrote:
However, considering the local, state and federal government " organized
response to Katrina", perhaps its time for us to look at another financial
" vehicle" to carry us forward in the competivive world of energy . . .
The government worked well in the past, and with proper leadership it can
work well today. Of course industry must assume most of the risk and
expense, as it has in the past.
The US Government is "maxed " out of financial resources, this happened "
before" Katrina.
Well, it would only take a few billion dollars of government money to
implement plug-in hybrids. Toyota spent $1 billion on the Prius, and it is
more than halfway to an ideal plug-in.
In any case, I do not think the U.S. is broke. The U.S. government was
running a surplus under Clinton. Things have not changed all that much
since then. The only big expense is the war, which costs $1 billion per
day. A $1 per gallon gasoline war tax would pay $400 million per day. This
would also eliminate shortages, lines at the gas station, or the need to
ration gasoline. The rest should come from an 80% war-time income tax on
people who make more than $250,000 per year. If we are going to have a war,
we have to pay for it. Two steps would fix the rest of the problem:
1. Rescind the tax cuts for everyone else.
2. Rescind recent trillion dollar giveaways to industry such as Starwars,
subsidies for agribusiness and fossil fuel, and the $200 billion highway
bill, that allocated $223 million for a bridge to nowhere in Alaska. Cancel
all that stuff, plus the hot fusion program, and there would be plenty of
money left over.
- Jed
