Danny Davis Watch

Though he’s not excited about it, Congressman Davis has announced that he’s generally supportive of Obama’s plan to open up some coastal waters to oil drilling.

Even from an ecological standpoint, given that America will continue to consume oil for the foreseeable future (especially with Obama’s consumption-oriented stimulus plan in full bore), it makes more sense to drill within America’s stronger eco-guidelines than to import oil pumped under the lax rules of third world nations.

No, it won’t end our dependence on foreign oil, but if companies are willing to drill for it, this off-shore oil is certain to benefit the country, and Davis is right to support access to it.

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In another demonstration of how low health care, fiscal responsibility, and personal freedom are on Congressman Davis’ priority list, he voted yesterday to approve an additional $2 billion to help people who already own cars buy new ones. That amount of money could have bought health insurance for 800,000 people (the population of San Francisco) for one year at the average Illinois individual market rate. Instead, if this measure passes the Senate as well, that money will be gone forever.

The $2 billion will go to the “Cash for Clunkers” program, which rewards buyers with a discount of up to $4,500 for trading in old vehicles for new ones with higher MPG ratings. The program had exhausted its initial $1 billion in funding, which Davis voted for as part of this bill, just days after commencing.

While supporters of the program have claimed it benefits the environment, that claim is only weakly supported by the program’s actual terms. For example, under the plan, a driver who trades in a 16 MPG Hummer for a brand new SUV that gets a marginally better 18 MPG can apparently receive a rebate of up to $3,500. Furthermore, these discounts give personal vehicles an unfair advantage over already disadvantaged mass transit systems such as Chicago’s CTA.

Another cause that doesn’t benefit from this program is that of America’s working poor. Those who don’t own a vehicle, own one that already gets high mileage, or can’t afford to buy a new vehicle even with a rebate, get little or no help under the Cash for Clunkers program.

Sound ridiculous? It’s all in a day’s work, apparently, for Illinois’ 7th District “progressive” Democrat congressman.

Update: A recent report by Edmunds.com has concluded that because so many “cash for clunkers” sales would have happened anyway, the total price to taxpayers for each new car sale created by the program was $24,000.

The Mises Institute has also pointed out that the program’s destruction of used cars contributed to an increase in the cost of living in October.

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Davis' vote for "cap-and-trade" goes against his bailout of SUV makers and home builders

I don’t want this blog sounding like a broken record, but Congressman Davis has cast yet another hypocritical vote, this time on the issue of the environment.

Today, Davis voted “yea” on the controversial “cap-and-trade” bill that aims to reduce U.S. carbon emissions. This, despite Davis’ past record of voting to prod Americans into purchasing more houses and more cars — both major contributors to emissions and resource consumption.

Davis supported additional, unnecessary home construction when he voted for the $819 billion stimulus bill in January which included a provision to provide first-time home buyers with a $7,500 tax credit on the purchase of a new home. Like all subsidies, there can be only one result: more of what is being subsidized. More home sales, more home construction, more energy and resource consumption, and more destruction of natural habitat — all at higher levels than a free market would have produced. And what if you’re someone like me who rents a small apartment? Tough luck. Even though America has too many houses already, Davis is using your paycheck to build even more.

And despite more Americans (including myself) getting rid of their cars completely, Davis has been helping to keep more cars on the road by supporting recent bailouts for the automotive industry. The prime recipients of these bailouts has been GM, the producers of some of the largest at least fuel efficient personal vehicles on the planet. Had GM or the other auto giants been allowed to go bankrupt, the money in the economy would have simply flowed into creating jobs elsewhere — and just about anything else would have been better for the environment than producing gas-guzzling hunks of steel that no one is actually buying. But that’s not what happened. If you’re like me and travel mostly by bus or bike, too bad. Your tax dollars will go toward keeping cars cheap and streets full, thanks to Davis.

And those are just two examples. There are countless other instances (such as his recent funding for the Mid East Wars) of Davis sending money to expensive, anti-environmental causes that many Americans would have never themselves approved of.

If Davis truly wants to vote “green,” he needs to stop incentivizing American consumption of Big Auto and Big Real Estate products, not foist clumsy, “cap-and-trade” tax schemes on the country.

Photo by Wikimedia user Sfoskett

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