{"id":6747,"date":"2006-03-02T10:08:11","date_gmt":"2006-03-02T15:08:11","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.thecarpetbaggerreport.com\/?p=6747"},"modified":"2006-03-02T10:08:11","modified_gmt":"2006-03-02T15:08:11","slug":"obama-thinks-outside-the-box-on-health-care-energy-conservation","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/obama-thinks-outside-the-box-on-health-care-energy-conservation\/","title":{"rendered":"Obama thinks outside the box on health care, energy conservation"},"content":{"rendered":"

Sen. Barack Obama’s proposed deal with American auto manufacturers<\/a> seems like the kind of innovative idea we expect from him. And as a policy matter, it makes a lot of sense.<\/p>\n

Trying to jump-start gains in auto fuel efficiency after decades of inaction, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., is proposing an unusual swap for the Big Three U.S. carmakers: Washington would pay some of Detroit’s multibillion-dollar health costs in exchange for it making cars that get higher gasoline mileage.<\/p>\n

The federal government would pay 10 percent of the $6.7 billion in annual health costs for retirees that are weighing down General Motors, Ford and Chrysler if they’ll commit to building more fuel-efficient cars, Obama proposed in a speech Tuesday before a panel at the National Governors Association conference. He called it a “win-win proposal for the industry.”<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Fuel economy standards for cars are at 1985 levels and many believe Congress should just force Detroit to make more fuel-efficient vehicles. The industry, meanwhile, says the changes would be too expensive, especially as they struggle with health care costs. Fine, Obama tells manufacturers, we’ll help with health care and you boost fuel standards.<\/p>\n

Kevin notes<\/a>, accurately, that “more fuel-efficient cars” is not exactly a specific prescription and, upon close examination, Obama’s plan — raise CAFE standards by 3% a year over the next fifteen years, starting in 2008 — is fairly “moderate.”<\/p>\n

But that’s not a criticism. Obama is approaching a lingering problem in a new way, which happens to be both practical and progressive. “It’s wonky and earnest, it has bipartisan appeal, it has pork appeal (lots of farmers in Illinois), and what’s more, it’s genuinely worthwhile,” Kevin said. “And it’s a damn sight more than President Bush has put on the table, that’s for sure.”<\/p>\n

Agreed. I’d also add that it helps push the conversation about nationalized health care just a little further. Once the government is helping to relieve the auto industry of some health care costs, a) Detroit won’t want to go back to the old system once 2025 rolls around; and b) other industries may be willing to make similar, innovative deals in exchange for reduced corporate health care costs.<\/p>\n

It’s a win-win-win. I can only hope other Dems take the proposal seriously.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Sen. Barack Obama’s proposed deal with American auto manufacturers seems like the kind of innovative idea we expect from him. And as a policy matter, it makes a lot of sense. Trying to jump-start gains in auto fuel efficiency after decades of inaction, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., is proposing an unusual swap for the Big […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[617],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-6747","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-general"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6747","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=6747"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6747\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=6747"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=6747"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stevebenen.com\/thecarpetbaggerreport\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=6747"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}