General Motors CEO - We should have a dollar per gallon gas tax

xmacro

Anyone remember GM? The company who took all that tax payer money and owes his entire company to the Gov't? Their CEO is clamoring to raise taxes.

What's not often said is that Congress' fuel standards, CAFE, are hurting the Big 3. CAFE essentially says that the avg. fleet of vehicles needs to have an average fuel efficiency of X (whatever it is now).

Now since it's the average of the car fleet, that means the car makers can build and sell all the SUV's they want, but they also need to build enough small compacts to get above that "avg. fuel efficiency". So if the average required is 30 mpg, and they build 10 SUV's with fuel efficiency of 15 mpg, they need to build 10 compacts with a fuel efficiency of 45 mpg to get to that 30 mpg average - but there's a problem.

Problem is, SUV's and the like - cars Americans like to buy - don't meet these standards, but they have high profit margins and they sell very nicely. The smaller cars like hybrids and compacts - cars Americans don't like to buy - are expensive to make, and the profit margin is much slimmer; not to mention the sales are very weak unless gas gets above $4.50, then they begin to sell. So while the car maker who makes 10 SUV's can sell those 10, they need to make 10 compacts to meet the CAFE standards, regardless if they can sell them or not - if they don't sell, they still need to make them.

So what's a car maker to do - they're hemorrhaging money, building cars that don't sell, because Congress won't get off their backs, so maybe they could ask Congress to get off? Hell no!! They just ask Congress to raise taxes and FORCE everyone to buy the compacts that no one wants to buy!!

Dan Akerson, chief executive officer of General Motors, said the U.S. government should slap a hefty surcharge on gasoline.

The reason, Akerson said, was that it would be good for the environment and good for the auto industry, which is seeking a larger audience for smaller, fuel efficient cars.

"You know what I'd rather have them do ... this will make my Republican friends puke ... as gas is going to go down here now, we ought to just slap a 50-cent or a dollar tax on a gallon of gas," he said in an interview, The Detroit News reported Tuesday.

"People will start buying more Cruzes and they will start buying less Suburbans," Akerson said.

Two other high-ranking auto executives have weighed in on the topic. Ford Motor Co. Chairman Bill Ford Jr. has come out in favor of a gasoline tax and former GM CEO Rick Wagoner said the idea was "worthy of consideration."

Industry analyst Rebecca Lindland at IHS Global Insight said the idea had merit -- she said it worked in Europe -- but raising taxes on gasoline was also "career suicide for a politician."

wwestern

Nope no problem with govenment sticking their hands into private buisness! I sure do hope people will wake up and see what's happening around them.

jr_p951

I almost made a real ugly comment...then decided not to.

fla-gypsy

I prefer they keep their hand out of business and my pocket

bige1371

I recall when GM was going under. I was working for a company that supplied them with the metals they used for engine blocks. We were working 12hr shifts and then all of the sudden my company OmniSource started laying people off and cutting hours. Along with most of the GM plants in NW Ohio and Detriot. They have a lot of balls asking for a tax hike after the Gov bailed them out.

zoom6zoom

actually, he said it should be an additional dollar per gallon tax.

beatnic

Bad government is coaxing people to do what you want with their wallet . Its' inherently evil.

wwestern

Well they're forcing you to buy healthcare....where did you think that would lead?

stephen_hannibal

Ahhh F**K GM and the Politicians.
Neither of them have anything to offer.

bip

This country went from a "hands off" government to a more of a hands on government with Roosevelt. That continued, with the gov getting into the lives of the people more and more until Regan. He decided to cut many of the programs that were in place and let the States deal with their people. Unfortunately only lasted while he was in office. People want their free welfare, the gov. has decided that the rest of the world is more important than it's own people so are willing to spend money on them instead, etc, etc. Our gov is supposed to be "... by the people for the people..." When did the average American forget that? A government will get away with as much as the people are willing to let them get away with.