The Obama administration's scheme to force you to buy the cars the Obama administration wants you to buy is offensive because it is an affront to freedom. It would have never occurred to me to compel my fellow Americans to buy a Ford Mustang, despite my fondness for the powerful convertible that I drove around in my early twenties. Why must the Obamaites force the rest of us to drive around in the electrical clown cars they so love?

The Obama plan to dictate the emissions and fuel efficiency of automobiles to their manufacturers makes one feel like the proverbial mosquito in a nudist colony. Where to begin?

The burdensome edict forcing automakers to manufacture cars and trucks with an average of 36 miles to the gallon by 2016 will implode the sticker price of automobiles. A source inside the administration concedes that it will add $1,300 to the average cost of a car. Note that estimate is the administration's rosy prophecy. Who knows what the real costs passed on to the consumer will be?

Cars will be less safe. Motorized bicycles can get better mileage than current cars but most people avoid them on highways because they are less safe. People like bigger, safer cars. The government doesn't like that you like bigger, safer cars. Thus, they have embarked on this perverse project of social engineering to compel you to buy smaller, flimsier cars. More fuel efficient cars mean, minus some unforeseen technological breakthrough, lighter, flimsier cars. This scenario isn't theoretical. It has already played itself out. Examine, for instance, the bumper of any car that rolled off the assembly line in the 1970s. Those bumpers are generally comprised of some sort of sturdy metallic material. My 2004 car's bumper is made out of the same material that those eighties-style faux batting helmets that could be won at any fair or amusement park. This fuel-efficiency minded, and not safety-minded, bumper transforms minor fender benders into major accidents. And they can transform major accidents into, well, you get the idea. What shortcuts on safety will automakers be coerced into taking in order to attain 40 miles per gallon in their 2016 models?

The order kneecaps the American auto industry in the two areas where it clearly has a competitive advantage over Japan and Europe: trucks and muscle cars. The bestselling American-made car in America isn't a car at all. It's a truck, the Ford F150. It gets, under the best of conditions, 19 miles to the gallon. Under Obama's plan, the industry standard for trucks will be 30 miles to the gallon. Is there a place for the Ford F150 in that world? There may be a truck called a Ford F150 in 2016, but other than its name what attributes would it share with the current model? Ditto for the Ford Mustang. The brand "Mustang" is too popular to jettison. One shudders to think what weak engine will lay beneath the 2016 Mustang shell.

Consumers will have less choice. An anonymous White House official, perhaps an emigre from Oceana, tried to pooh-pooh the notion that the fuel efficiency and pollution standards will run some cars off the road: "Consumers can retain choice but for more fuel-efficient cars." Translation? "Sir, would you like that Prius in red or blue?" Big Brother will be following you into the auto dealer's showroom. "Don't even think about that Cadillac Escalade. Take you eyes off the Camaro. A Chevy Volt suits you. Buy it. Now."

The observation that automakers approved of this usurpation of their decision-making abilities is one of the more comically absurd notions advanced among the major media outlets. Barack Obama is their boss. He fired the head of General Motors two months ago and ordered Chrysler to merge with Fiat. Of course the good company men of Detroit realize the real shot callers of Motor City reside 500 miles to the southeast. Just how nefarious the automotive bailout was really wasn't fully understood until yesterday. When you take the king's shilling, you do the king's bidding.

If Americans really wanted to trade cheaper, more sturdy automobiles for more expensive, flimsier ones that got better gas mileage, then hybrids would be the leading models. But the inconvenient truth for the Obama administration is that the bestselling American car for seventeen of the last eighteen years has been a hulking truck. Some Americans want hybrids, and they can buy them under the free system that more or less prevails. More Americans don't want hybrids, and they will have a tougher time buying trucks, sports cars, and station wagons under the program of force adopted yesterday by the Obama administration. Above all else, the scheme hatched by the Obama administration is a rebellion against the freedom of the marketplace and an embrace of the authoritarianism of force.

Freedom?! Obama is a central planning statist at war with the individual. He requires none of the productivity and/or innovation that is the byproduct of a free citizen. This makes perfect sense.

An old Leno joke about how cars were made so much better in the past. You could have an accident and all they'd need to do was hose the blood off the dash and you'd be good to go.

I drove my first car into a deep ditch, came flying up the other side,took out three fence posts and after being pulled out of the ditch was able to drive it home. It lasted 2 more years without any repair work. In today's cars I'd be dead.

But let's see, everyone starts driving fuel efficient cars so gas consumption goes down. That means less tax revenue for the roadways, so they have to raise the taxes on gas. The oil companies have to raise the price in order to make up for lower sales and we end up looking at $7 or $8 dollar a gallon gas. When that happens the cost of everything else triples because of transportation costs.

Gee, thanks Bama.

Statism at its best--regulate, unionize and tax industry into a catastrophe so that they need a bailout in order to survive. Statists ride to the rescue to "save" them with other people's money. Then the statists demand that industry hand over control, because--after all--the state is paying the piper and should call the tune. After replacing industry execs with new people hand-picked by statists, they can actually make the outlandish claim that the new regulations that statists had in mind the whole time are actually FAVORED by the industry. In reality, they're only favored by the people the statists chose to put in charge of industry.

If you've ever heard of puppet governments, get used to puppet CEOs.

Jez, I don't like this at all (not your articles, about what happen with Obama and the cars - CAFE etc etc). I don't understand why people kept push and make things worst than it really is. It is our choice to drive what we wants. I love my 1996 Tacoma 4x4 with cab. It is tough truck I ever drove and less $ to repair. My first truck, I have a lot difficult and pay a lot $ to repair GMC S15 4x4. Maybe GM can bring back Electric car from back in mid-1990's??? Jez....

One of the scariest things about this and the other government 'solutions' that Obama proposes, is that he actually makes it out like he knows what he's talking about. This is a guy who has done nothing much practical in his life and has only excelled at being a career student, community organizer and campaigner.

And let's take note that he made reference to how, with his new plan, the climate change people will get what they want. Well that's just great. F the economy as long as his pet groups are happy. Scarier still I think.

It's anti-family. How can I fit a family of more than 2.5 kids in these damn cars? I have 4 kids, and I may have more. Is there a minivan that gets this kind of milage. What safety do I have to give up for myself and my wife and children?

umm... has anyone looked and checked out the actual order? Doesn't it say "fleet"? I could be wrong but that means that the average will have some SUV's with less than average gas mileage and stupid clown cars with better gas mileage. I would get off the "sky is falling" bandwagon and do a little more research. You may be surprised, both good and bad.

The future of this plan should remind us of how it was in the Soviet Union. So here comes Obama and his cabinet riding in a fleet of big luxurious 16 mpg Escalades while the masses are forced to drive the latest government envirobuilt little green box.

He's already talking about having the government owned car companies build one for the people.

There was another guy who did this very same thing in Germany in the 1930's and created the Volkswagen.