Let's face facts.
The cash for clunkers program is pretty much a $3500 to $4500 Federal government handout to the middle class.
It is as if Uncle Sam wrote you a check for $4500 and encouraged you trash that old junker of yours and go spend it on a new car.
Not a bad deal if you can get it.
So I say go and get it while the going is good!
And that's exactly why conservatives hate the program because it gives money away to you and me.
Unlike the $800 billion dollar Tarp program which gave money (let's see I think I can do the math) that's right $800 billion to bankers on Wall Street.
Let's not forget the untold billions (it must be close to $100 billion by now) that went to GM and Chrysler.
And let's not kid ourselves substantial portions of these so-called TARP and GM/Chrysler bailout "loans" went to pay crazy expensive executive pay and even crazier bonus plans.
Which, by the way, may be good for Ferrari and Rolls Royce, but do little in the way of helping sell your average Toyota or Chevy.
So now the conservatives in the Senate have their underwear in a huge bunch because the Federal government might actually give some money to the middle class.
"We estimated this would cost $1 billion," Sen. Jim DeMint, R-S.C. "Now they're
saying we need $2 billion more. Our children and grandchildren can't
afford to make these car dealers well right now."
Wow, if you add all that money up you actually get to $3 billion. And if I do the math (that's about three percent) of all of the recent Federal money that has recently gone to the captains of industry and banking that did such a bang-up job of keeping this country economically afloat.
Plus Senator you know what my son needs?
A new car with all of the new safety bells and whistles to keep him alive should we be hit by a drunk investment banker in a 5798 pound V12 Rolls Royce Phantom.
Economics Harvard professor Jeffery A. Miron wrote on CNN.com today, "Cash for clunkers is therefore just redistribution to certain consumers and to the auto industry; it is more bailout dressed up as environmental policy. Congress should end the program, not expand it."
No kidding!
I'm always amazed at how politicians and economist can find "reasonable" rational when the money goes to the people they don't know vs. the friends they do know.
If the government (in its infinite wisdom) believes that cutting you a $4500 check to buy a new car will stimulate the economy and help save the plant I say you go for it before the rich, powerful, and conservative figure out that their buddies are missing out on a 3 percent bonus…which. after all, could just get them into the new Rolls-Royce Phantom Drophead Coupe with the Twin umbrellas that deploy from the front door openings.
