A light hearted view of the healthcare legislation foisted upon us

I am a little too depressed by Congress today (and still giddy from the Cornell win yesterday) to post more substantively on this, so I will just quote something from my favorite broker on The Efficiency of Government:

Think of it this way: A clunker that travels 12,000 miles a year at 15 mpg uses 800 gallons of gas a year.

A vehicle that travels 12,000 miles a year at 25 mpg uses 480 gallons a year.

So, the average Cash for Clunkers transaction will reduce US gasoline consumption by 320 gallons per year.

They claim 700,000 vehicles so that's 224 million gallons saved per year. That equates to a bit over 5 million barrels of oil. 5 million barrels is about 5 hours worth of US consumption.

More importantly, 5 million barrels of oil at $70 per barrel costs about $350 million dollars. So, the government paid $3 Billion of our tax dollars to save $350 million.

We spent $8.57 for every dollar we saved.

I'm pretty sure they will do a great job with our health care, though.

UPDATE: Some recent pictures of world class healthcare in Paris for your consideration:

Notice the seatless toilet (great for kids!), the mold in the corner, the paint job… all a kid needs to ‘get well soon’ at a “world class” level. A hole in the wall through which live wires come out. In a pediatric bathroom. Really. It was wintertime and the window was stuck open, but don’t worry, THEY TAPED IT SHUT.

UPDATE: This is sort of lighthearted--it's definitely lighting quick, so hold on to your seat: