EPA Crushes American Business While Repairing Mexican Trucks

It's almost as though the administration purposely chooses the wrong answer every time:

In the latest effort to accommodate its cherished trade partner in the south, the U.S. government is paying to upgrade outdated Mexican trucks that hemorrhage illegal amounts of exhaust on their trips north to deliver merchandise.

The Mexican trucks enter the U.S. under a 17-year-old international trade pact known as the North American Free Trade Agreement (NAFTA) and they’ve created an air pollution crisis. The air quality in border towns has been especially impacted by the exorbitant levels of exhaust released by the Mexican trucks, which also fail to meet American safety standards.

Since the Mexican truckers have no intention of fixing the problem, Uncle Sam has stepped in to save the environment. U.S. taxpayers have picked up the cost to replace old mufflers on dozens of trucks and many more are scheduled to be upgraded by the middle of this year. The unbelievable story was reported this week by an Arizona newspaper that says replacing the old mufflers with new catalytic converters will reduce harmful diesel emissions by up to 30%.

Just as many in the inner cities are content to sit back and let the U.S. taxpayers take care of them, so too are the Mexican truckers. Why should they invest in the upkeep and maintenance of their trucks when a gullible EPA is ready to jump in with your tax dollars?

This is a very simple fix. Tell the Mexican truckers they have two choices: Fix their trucks to our specifications or park them at the border. Their loads can be transferred to U.S. carriers, and if that creates a problem with NAFTA...well, that's too bad. We're no longer going to run a welfare program for Mexican truckers.