SlinginSammy, how about I make this the last rebuttal, if you will, and let's call it a draw.
I have to say though I find it a little humorous and hypocritical that Republicans take issue with the "job killing" EPA. Listening to you and Michele Bachmann one would think that the EPA suddenly came onto the scene 24 months ago and is an invention of Barack Hussein Obama with the expressed purpose to dismantle the U.S. economy, implement his socialist agenda, and pass onerous laws that will save the planet. That argument holds about as much water as you and me blaming Bruce Allen for drafting Patrick Ramsey and failing to get the Redskins to the Super Bowl in his rookie year. It really amounts to the same silly partisan foolishness and parsing statistics to make our respective points.
The EPA was proposed by President Richard Nixon in 1970, a Republican president, and has been operating just fine under every administration until January 20, 2009, according to conservatives. The role and function of the agency encompasses quite a bit, but issuing fuel standards for automobile manufacturers is one of the many things the agency is designed to do. Again, this has been going on for nearly four decades. If the goal of these fuel and emission standards is to make our vehicles more fuel efficient, ensure U.S. auto makers are globally competitive again (see GM's recent earnings) and more importantly, make America less dependent on foreign oil production, then I'm all for losing 7,257 jobs. That's a drop in the bucket in the overall scheme of things and a small price to pay to keep pace with the rest of the world that is quickly passing us by. But don't take my word for it. Detroit, which is on the rebound in a major way, thinks it's a good idea too.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/08/04/bu...sler-says.html
What's utterly incomprehensible to me, however, is that the two industries you point out -- Big Oil and Wall Street (Consumer Financial Protection Bureau) -- are clearly among the most profitable and seem to be impervious to market conditions and these so called socialist regulations that President Obama have put in place. It's well documented the success of Big Oil over the past three years and the big banks continue to reap record profits while hoarding tons of cash. I'm no economist, but that doesn't pass the smell test. I can't wait until you hear your GOP presidential candidates announce to the world in the next debate how they would have let Detroit fold like a cheap suit because, you know, government needs to get out of the way.
Let me leave you with one voice of reason from your end of the spectrum, since I'm drumming up all these liberals. David Frum, George W. Bush's economic speechwriter, weighed in on the very matter we're discussing right now. He doesn't get into the numbers so much, but he does provide some insight.
http://www.frumforum.com/less-politics-more-economics