"It profits me but little that a vigilant authority always protects the tranquillity of my pleasures and constantly averts all dangers from my path, without my care or concern, if this same authority is the absolute master of my liberty and my life."

--Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America

Saturday, May 5, 2012

The Buried "Gaffe"

Congressman Pete Stark (D-CA) is in the news this week for a gaffe in which he confusedly thought that Solyndra -- the notorious solar panel maker touted by Obama and subsidized by you and me to the tune of $500 million or so, only to go bankrupt -- was a manufacturer of electric cars:

CA East Bay Rep. Fortney “Pete” Stark, 80, identified Fremont-based Solyndra — perhaps the nation’s most notorious solar energy firm and a lightening rod in the 2012 election — as a car manufacturer in his editorial board meeting this week with the San Francisco Chronicle.

Stark’s comments appear to confuse Solyndra — which went bankrupt last year after receiving a $535 million federal loan guarantee — and Tesla Motors, a Fremont-based manufacturer of upscale electic cars now located at the site of the former NUMMI plant.

Asked about his views on new policies regarding Silicon Valley and high tech, including Solyndra, the Congressman said: “I wish I had enough expense allowance to get one of those new “S’s” that Solyndra’s going to make down there, the electric car..my 10 year old  (son) is after me. He no longer wants a Porsche. He wants dad to have an “S” sedan,’ Stark said. “They sound wild. They run $60,000-$90,000.”

The gaffe isn't what the newspapers think, however.  Stark, at 80 years old, should be cut some slack for confusing the names of two companies.   It happens.

But the real gaffe (or gaffes) to me is the following:

1. The reporter fails to note that Tesla Motors is also government-subsidized.

2. No one seems smart enough to ask... why are we subsidizing the manufacture of cars that can only be purchased by very rich people?

As for Stark, when so much of my tax money is flowing out of the federal government to so many Obama contributors and left cronies.... hell, I'd probably mix up their names too.   That's what happens when the government gets too big.

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