I understand Jimmy Carter also had something to do with it. Gerald Ford signed the legislation (already weakened because of the "voluntary" bit) but it fell to Carter to appoint the US Metric Board. He appointed some in favor and some against in order to have a balance. This is not the way to get anything done. After four years of cat fighting and little progress Reagan came into office and put an end to it.
Someone correct me if I don't have this right. Carleton -----Original Message----- From: [EMAIL PROTECTED] [mailto:[EMAIL PROTECTED] On Behalf Of Linda D. Bergeron Sent: Saturday, February 25, 2006 10:52 To: U.S. Metric Association Subject: [USMA:36126] RE: Tax break It would, if we could get the Congress and the President to support it. After all "money talks, *** walks". It would also give us a good idea of who in Congress is for metrication and who is not, since they would have to take a stand on the issue in order to vote on the bill. The backslidding on metrication started when Ronald Reagan did away the Metrication Board and switched it's functions to an already existing department without any additional funding to do the work. Next came the removal of the deadline to change all roadsigns in the US to metric by a given date from the federal highway funding legislation. It has been downhill from there. I agree though with the principle of lack of leadership. If our govenment had conducted an active educational campain we would be further along then we are today. Our leaders are ducking the issue by saying "let any change be voluntery..." without an educational campain, knowing that instinctivly people are going to resist any change in what they view as ordinary. In doing so, they are also turning blind eye to the consitituation requirement that Congress set the "weights and measurement" standards for the whole country. In short, they have been smoke screening all along. They do not want change but do not want to come out and say so for fear of triggering a firestorm. Linda ----Original Message Follows---- From: Scott Hudnall <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> Reply-To: [EMAIL PROTECTED] To: "U.S. Metric Association" <[email protected]> Subject: [USMA:36120] Tax break Date: Fri, 24 Feb 2006 20:34:38 -0800 I don¹t think ³backsliding² on metrication can be blamed on Republicans or Democrats, I think it is due to the lack of leadership and poor policy decisions in Washington. I wonder if significant one-time corporate tax breaks to offset metrication costs + reward companies for doing so, would get the ball rolling? Not an ongoing thing, but a one-time break that would reward companies for metricating (and remaining metric). Just a thought. -- Scott Hudnall _________________________________________________________________ Express yourself instantly with MSN Messenger! Download today - it's FREE! http://messenger.msn.click-url.com/go/onm00200471ave/direct/01/
