Captured

clipped from www.windsofchange.net For more than 40 years, a 25% tariff has kept out foreign-built pickup trucks even as a studied loophole was created in fuel-economy regulations to let the Big Three develop a lucrative, protected niche in the "passenger truck" business. This became the long-running unwritten deal. This was Washington's real auto policy. For three decades, the Big Three were able to survive precisely because they skimped on quality and features in the money-losing sedans they were required under Congress's fuel economy rules to build in high-cost UAW factories. In return, Washington compensated them with the hothouse, politically protected opportunity to profit from pickups and SUVs. And that point - that the issue isn't too much regulation or too little regulation, but regulation that is captured by and for the regulated - is something we ought to be damn thoughtful about as we contemplate an immense expansion of regulatory authority in this country.

Umm. Actually *no* regulation would be the correct choice. It's just lunacy to think that pols won't be corrupted when wielding the ridiculous amount of power we have given them. R, D or otherwise.