McCain's Tire Inflation Problem

From our friends over at GetLiberty.org:

John McCain is all atwitter over Barack Obama’s absurd asseveration that proper tire inflation can solve America’s energy crisis (or something to that affect). Unfortunately for the hapless Mr. McCain, however, he could soon be facing his own inflationary bugaboo.

Enter TREAD – the likely soon-to-be-infamous “Transportation Recall Enhancement, Accountability, and Documentation Act” (S.3059). Sponsored by none other than John Sidney McCain III on 9/15/00, TREAD doesn’t merely suggest—it mandates—that Big Government insert itself into the tire inflation issue, at a substantial and continuing cost to the American consumer.

Specifically, Section 13 of the law (PL 106-414) spawned by Mr. McCain’s overzealous bill contains the following onerous provision:

“SEC. 13. < note.>> TIRE PRESSURE WARNING.

“Not later than 1 year after the date of the enactment of this Act, the Secretary of Transportation shall complete a rulemaking for a regulation to require a warning system in new motor vehicles to indicate to the operator when a tire is significantly under inflated."

Mr. McCain’s tiresome measure was passed into law on November 1, 2000. The expensive compliance system became mandatory on all new cars made after January 1, 2006. And it has since cost American consumers countless millions of dollars -- both at the dealerships and in repair shops, where the computer monitors require expensive maintenance.

Note to Mr. McCain and the RNC: Before you hyper-inflate over what could have been a high-traction issue, make sure your own candidate hasn’t already catered to those who can’t seem to learn the lesson that when Big Government takes the wheel, consumers are in for a costly ride down the road to perdition.

This tire inflation stuff is crazy. The guy who has done yeoman's work on exposing it is NRO's John Geraghty. Here is a good post on the subject from John. This one isn't too bad either...

Bottom line: Big Government isn't the answer. We need to get Big Government out of the way as quickly as possible.