Cash for Clunkers, the federal program that gives people $4500 for their car that gets less than 18 miles per gallon is a bust all around.
1. We're giving money to throw cars into the scrap heap (yes they must be destroyed) - an environmental waste of epic proportions. Most of these cars, we will find, could have been on the road for many more years of usefulness. 18mpg or not, this is horrible waste.
2. We are taking $4500 per car of taxpayer money (almost double that when we pay off the Chinese for the loans), and there is absolutely no guarantee that they will buy products from the government bailed out American companies GM and Chrysler. Or from Ford for that matter, as they only have 2 hybrid models. My guess is most people will buy the high mpg cars from Toyota, Honda, Nissan etc. Money borrowed from foreigners, double debt service taxes from Americans, to buy mostly foreign cars. In the name of smaller carbon footprints and economic stimulus? BS.
3. And like most government programs it is poorly designed and poorly executed - dealers are on the hook for the money while the gov't figures out how to distribute it. The solution, by the way, as of yesterday is to triple the amount of money available. Someone find out just how much of the cost goes to "administering" the plan.
Oh yeah, I want government run healthcare.
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2 comments:
You make a cogent, compelling case against this lunacy. Unfortunately, the so-called mainstream media only trumpet Obama's supposed success in needing yet more govt spending. It's absurd, but not funny. Keep up the fight, though. Maybe some day logic will be considered stimulus.
What's particularly odd is that tens of thousands of low income families buy used cars in the price range of the cars that are being destroyed. A family that can only afford two thousand dollars to buy a car will find millions of fewer choices because we're burying them so people with credit can buy new cars. Low income families are totally shut out by this stupid, stupid plan.
And the eco benefit of 4 mpg will never even come close to covering a carbon footprint that puts tons of steel into trash heaps.
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