My Cash for Your Clunker

The "Cash for Clunkers" program is over and the official line is that it was a smashing success. 690,114 "gas guzzlers" were traded in for new, more efficient vehicles. $2.88 billion of taxpayer money financed the program. A program that was supposed to last until the end of November spent $1 billion in the first week and was over in a month.

The fact that the government takes money from one taxpayer to give to someone else is not new. It happens all the time as taxpayer money is redistributed to favor a targeted group. However, this time with the Cash for Clunkers program it has rarely been so blatant to take taxpayer dollars to favor certain groups. The intent was to get "gas guzzlers" off the road and replace them with more fuel efficient vehicles. This was the intent of the liberal green lobby's devout wish to scrap every pickup truck and SUV (unless it's their own). Secondly, the program was designed to help the car dealers, car companies and let's not forget the overpaid, under worked UAW members. This is in addition to the over $60 billion of taxpayer money that has already been spent on GM and Chrysler.

There were certain rules that had to be followed. The car/truck had to get less than 18 miles to the gallon. If you bought a vehicle that got at least 10 mpg more then you got a $4,500 benefit. If only 2 mpg more then you got $3,500. Why the discrepancy? The geniuses who wrote this legislation realized that GM and Chrysler, especially Chrysler, made very few vehicles that got better than 28 mpg. But they did offer a lot of big SUV and trucks that could meet a vastly lowered standard of 2 mpg improvement. In other words without the lower requirement both GM and Chrysler would have hardly benefited from the program because they didn't offer enough vehicles to qualify. Furthermore, the trade-ins, no matter the condition, had to be scrapped.

The results are in and surprise, eight out of the top ten sellers were cars made by Japanese and Korean companies. Only two Ford products were in the top ten. If fact, about 60% of the new vehicles sold were made by foreign car companies. Moreover, as is often the case with a government program that is ill conceived and hastily put together, the rules and paperwork were horrendous. Most car dealers have yet to be paid, the paperwork demands were enormous and the rules were insanely complicated. (And we want the government to take over health care?) As expected, most of the vehicles traded in were trucks and SUVs thereby appeasing the enviromentalists. However there were also a lot of new trucks and SUVs that were sold with engines that got slightly better mileage, though not much, than the trade-in. Even so, Chrysler sold the fewest new cars and trucks of anybody.

Several comments from Duffy about the Cash for Clunkers program.

1) If you see your neighbor with a new small car when he used to have a large pickup, think of your tax dollars at work .

2) Almost 700,000 cars were sold in one month. Wait for the cries of anguish from the car dealers the next 3 months when nobody buys anything.

3) How many perfectly good used cars and trucks will really be scrapped? Many will, but more than a few will end up being resold on the black market, shipped to South America, or be torn down for parts.

4) Watch for articles in the press (which the Administration will try to suppress) of how many people who bought new cars will not be able to make the car payments and have their vehicles repossessed.

Just another example of the Obama administration and Congress deciding to favor certain groups over others by using your taxpayer dollars. Rarely have I seen anything so blatant and unfair, but I fear this will become a common occurrence with this Administration.