Barry Thinks Truckers are Morons

The Failed Obama Administration™ has issued another absurdity:

President Barack Obama is getting behind a national policy to boost fuel efficiency and cut greenhouse-gas pollution from medium- and heavy-duty trucks.

Obama said Friday he's asking the Environmental Protection Agency and the Transportation Department to come up with what would be a first-ever policy for such trucks in model years 2014-2018.

Such a move, he said, will bring down the cost of transporting goods, reduce pollution and spur growth in the clean-energy sector. The government will also work with the public and private sectors to develop technology for plug-in hybrids and electric vehicles, Obama said.

If there was a way to lower costs of truck transportation, truckers would be doing it already. Reducing costs without changing anything else puts more money directly into truckers’ pockets. It would be like finding $100 bills on the highway.

Barry seems to think that truckers are too stupid to stop and pick up those hundreds. Or, he thinks that by a stroke of his pen full of rainbows, he make make cash drop from the sky for truckers.

Assinine.

Truck transport is notoriously competive. For an example, look at produce haulers—the people who bring us our food. They have been fighting to reach revenue of one dollar per mile since 1980. For thirty years, as the cost of fuel and the cost of equipment has multiplied, trucker pay has remained flat. And don’t get me started on how much those rising costs are due to previous occupants of the White House and their own power fantasies.

If there was a way to lower costs, Walmart would be doing it. This relentless drive for efficiency is why Wally-world is both admired and reviled. The leftoids—who do the reviliing—can’t have it both ways. Either Walmart’s shippers are at the cutting edge of efficiency and no amount of unicorn farts from the Oval Office will reduce costs further and faster, or, Walmart is a big dumb corporation with management too stupid to know what’s best for their business.

Of course, spending more on unproven technology will spur growth in that speculative sector. Is speculation good or bad? Barry gets indignant when bankers and oil traders speculate. But when it is his Anointed Self playing with taxpayer money, speculation is the pixie dust that brings about progress.

And as always, nobody wants to consider the unseen. That spending on speculative transport technology is wealth that cannot be put toward actually transporting goods that real customers are willing to buy with their own sweat and dollars. Anyone with a job and career in the now-disfavored “proven technology” industry is made a candidate for unemployment by Barry’s naïve wishes. Folks in Louisiana and the rest of the oil patch must feel like they have targets painted on them.

Every good lie rests upon a kernel of truth. In this instance, the current President is correct that his policies will reduce pollution. There will be fewer people working, making less stuff. Lower production of goods leads to less energy consumption and less pollution. And less wealth.

We can all breathe a little easier once Colonel Obama returns us to poverty. Good thing, since we’ll be hauling our produce to market in handcarts or behind oxen.