NY Times Reveals Congressmen Have Bad Taste In Cars, No Eye For A Deal

Wes Siler — Thu, 01 May 2008 10:20:00 EDT

Representative Michael R. McNulty pays $816 for a 2007 Mercury Mariner Hybrid, which he chose for its utility. Representative Redolphus Towns pays $715 a month for his Lincoln MKX, he bought it to save money on fuel. Representative Louise M. Slaughter needed a car that handled safely in the snow, so she picked a Buick Lucerne, for which the US Taxpayer pays $808 a month. All have chosen to take advantage of the benefit on offer to any member of the US House of Representatives: any car of their choice leased for them with no price limit and all expenses, including gas, paid for.

Now we understand that our Representatives in the House are busy people, what with all the time it takes to investigate the moral fiber of our baseball players and pretending that there's not a war on, but surely they'd benefit from spending just a few minutes picking out better cars or scouring the internet for deals. We're even prepared to help them do so, for free.

Representative McNulty, you might find the Mazda5 has greater utility than your Mariner, it also gets 28mpg on the highway and is available in your area, Albany, for just $249 a month for 24 months. And did you know that the regular 4-cylinder Mariner gets marginally better fuel economy and is available straight from Ford.com for $279/month? It beats riding the boat.

Mr. Towns, if fuel economy is your greatest concern, we'd humbly suggest that an SUV, much less one powered by a 3.5-liter V6, may not be the best car for you. What about a Toyota Prius? Not only will it carry more street-cred with your liberal Brooklyn constituency, but it's available for just $330!

And finally, Mrs. Slaughter. $808 will get you a lot of car, especially if you need one that's safe in the snow. BMW's X5 is amazingly capable in bad conditions and they'll let you have one for only $729/month. That'll save the taxpayers $79 each month and more importantly, might save your life. [via The NY Times]
Photography credit: DBKing

House To Gas-Gougers: Beware

Jonny Lieberman — Thu, 24 May 2007 11:15:00 EDT

With the same gusto they mustered when legislating timelines for troop withdrawals, the House of Representatives today signed off on legislation that would severely punish gas-gougers. Not surprisingly, the White House has already threatened a veto claiming the law is a form of price controls. While we personally disagree with the White House (about everything) and think it is cute that Congress is trying to do something before $4 per gallon gas causes voter revolts, our reading of the bill is it was doomed to begin with. You want vague language? Read this:

The bill directs the Federal Trade Commission and Justice Department to go after oil companies, traders or retail operators if they take "unfair advantage" or charge "unconscionably excessive" prices for gasoline and other fuels.

Anyone care to define "unconscionably excessive?" To our eyes, the dozens and dozens of arcane tax loopholes oil companies receive (calculating the taxable value of their inventories based on old stocks, not market value, etc.) would qualify as "unconscionably excessive." We also think limiting refinery capacity just in time for summer is unconscionably and excessively ~~dickish~~ greedy. In other news, Gordon Gekko is out of prison and Wall Street 2 is nigh. – Jonny Lieberman

House approves stiff gas-gouging penalties [via msnbc.com]

Jalopnik: House Of Representatives

NY Times Reveals Congressmen Have Bad Taste In Cars, No Eye For A Deal

House To Gas-Gougers: Beware