Cash For Clunkers Remembered

By Douglas V. Gibbs

Dearly beloved, we gather here today to remember Cash For Clunkers. . .

Ah, forget it, the failed program isn't worth remembering.

How crazy is it to expect people who can't afford a new car, especially during an economic downturn, to buy one? Then, how crazy is it to destroy the trade-in, when it is those vehicles the next step down on the economic ladder can afford, leaving less vehicles available for the lower income range, and driving up the cost of vehicles in that range due to the decrease in supply? The destruction of the vehicles also eliminated the use of salvageable parts. Used parts are also an important commodity used by the lower incomes. I thought the Left was "for" the poor?

American Companies sure didn't do well. Only Ford's sales went up (you know, the one American company that refused government bailout money). The most bought car out of the program was the Toyota Corolla.

The Federal Government couldn't keep up with the paperwork, leaving the dealers holding the bag for a lot of money.

The government funds were taxed in many cases. Many of the deals were disapproved. The reduction in gasoline consumption, when figured out, turned out to be minimal, cutting our oil consumption by 0.2 percent per year, or less than a single day's gasoline use.

Cash for Clunkers was a major failure, and it was a few billion dollar program. And these incompetent Leftists in Washington, after showing us how lousy they were at administering the Cash for Clunkers program, expects us to let them increase government intrusion into other parts of the free market?

As if. . .

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary

Irwin Stelzer: Seven lessons of Cash-for-Clunkers' failure - The Examiner