Auto Czar, Truly

In the early part of this year, there had been much talk of Barack Obama appointing an "auto czar" to lead the restructuring of the auto industry given its financial plight.

The administration didn't appoint one person for that role, instead having a team of people lead the administration's restructuring efforts.

Now we know why: Barack Obama reserved that title for himself.

His decision to impose his will on American consumers and the auto makers, with his recently announced fuel efficiency standards, is worthy of a czar. Dictating to people that they buy cars they don't want to own, and forcing financially devastated auto companies to make unprofitable cars, can only happen in the hands of a government drunk on its desire to use its power to reorder how people live.

If consumers want to drive cars that get 39 mpg, which is the new standard for the average car by 2016, they would choose to buy them. More fuel efficient cars than that have existed in the past - they are small and underpowered, so don't appeal to most Americans, but it isn't a technological challenge to make them.

And since people don't want to buy such cars, they become unprofitable for the auto makers to produce. In case anyone hasn't noticed, the Big Three are desperate to make money, not lose more of it on money losing dreams of the social engineers.

The only way to prevent such loses is to impose dramatic taxes on gasoline, or provide enormous tax subsidies, so consumers are induced to buy highly fuel efficient cars. $6.00 per gallon gas, here we come.

Since Americans "vote" every day with their pocketbook, in terms of the purchases they make, and clearly prefer less fuel efficient cars, it will be interesting to see if they realize that Obama's actions are a direct affront to their own choices and preferences. My guess is many will think they can continue to buy the car they want, while it is "the other guy" who gets stuck with a car he doesn't want.

They will be in for a rude awakening.