Cash for Clunkers

[bueno bob]

Cash for clunkers...

Listen...the $4500 you are supposedly getting is money that each of us has already paid to the Government...

Then, they send these care to China and elsewhere (which effects our steel industry) and they turn them into more crap to sell back to us...

Also, the majority of these "clunkers" are most likely very usably cars that many Americans want and depend on...

It's a lose lose situation anyway you look at it...


So, how many strikes is that for Obama ??

I think he's finished...

Dude, no. My next door neighbor did it, traded in a gas swallowing hog that was costing him more to keep on the road than it EVER should. But guess what? With his new baby girl, he HAD to keep pouring money into the piece of shit in order to get back and forth to work on a daily basis. No alternative. Until now.

And it worked out GREAT. Now he's gotten rid of that hunk of garbage, has reliable transportation back and forth and can actually get through DEQ's emissions control without having to stretch out his trip permits and run the risk of running out of permits and he also doesn't have to run the risk of losing his job if he ever got pulled over for expired tags - since the shitheap couldn't get through DEQ without him dropping another $900 on it that he couldn't afford.

Pros - got rid of the old car, got a credit to a new one, doesn't have to worry about DEQ, has maintained his job security and can continue to provide for his new baby.

Cons - Barack Obama is an asshole, right?

Yeah, dude, everybody loses here don't they?

Please. The one area where you're correct is that the $4500.00 IS money we've already paid the government. Isn't it time we actually got something OUT of what we pay into the government?

Christ...

[ELVIS]

Cash for clunkers...

Listen...the $4500 you are supposedly getting is money that each of us has already paid to the Government...

Then, they send these care to China and elsewhere (which effects our steel industry) and they turn them into more crap to sell back to us...

Also, the majority of these "clunkers" are most likely very usably cars that many Americans want and depend on...

It's a lose lose situation anyway you look at it...


So, how many strikes is that for Obama ??

I think he's finished...

[Big Train]

Agreed.

More importantly, there is a perfect example to keep the party "message" intact and they chose to step all over it.

If Bush's tax refunds were sound, this should be even more so. However, by just harping on it being poorly run, they are also saying this is bad government, when in fact it is not.

[hideyoursheep]

My rides aren't going anywhere.

Nothing new has impressed me to even consider.

[bueno bob]

God forbid something kick the economy in motion. What could they have to bitch about then? I mean, other than the differential between "Birth Certificate" and "Certificate of Live Birth"?

[Big Train]

Here is a perfectly good scenario. A DREAM scenario for Republicans. But...they are being fucking idiots. Instead of exploring the "Hey when you give Americans their money back, they USE IT immediately", these morons pick the "The government is already out of money with this program, how can they run healthcare" angle. Instead of sticking with the fundamentals of fiscal conservation, they go with this bullshit.

This is why I've been and will remain independent.

Republicans in this Congress are no better at seeing true stimulus than the boneheaded Democrats who got lucky with this.

August 2, 2009, 5:20 pm
‘Cash for Clunkers’ Becomes a Republican Target
By Janie Lorber

The government’s “cash for clunkers” program become the latest political flashpoint on Sunday, with Obama administration officials urging the Senate to approve more money for the initiative and Republicans raising concerns about it.

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said the government would kill the highly popular incentive deal if the Senate did not follow the lead of the House, which voted Friday to give the program an additional $2 billion.

If the Senate did not approve that $2 billion in new financing, “we would have to suspend the program next week,” Mr. LaHood said in an interview on the C-Span program “Newsmakers.” He said that the administration would “continue the program until we see what the Senate does” but that he expected the current $1 billion pool for rebates to run out by the end of this weekend.

Meanwhile, dealerships around the country, where support for the program is high, are worried about the uncertainty over its future. Many have canceled hundreds of thousands of dollars in advertising. Others are hopeful that the government will come up with the money to extend the program.

Republicans say the problems with the program are another strike against the Obama administration as it pushes for a speedy overhaul of the health care system that would involve a government-run insurance program. They argue that government involvement in any industry is a recipe for disaster.

Senator Jim DeMint, Republican of South Carolina, said the “cash for clunkers” program was an example of the “stupidity coming out of Washington right now.”

“The federal government went bankrupt in one week in the used-car business, and now they want to run our health care system,” Mr. DeMint said in an interview on “Fox News Sunday.” “This is crazy to try to rush this thing through again while they’re trying to rush through health care, and they want to get on to cap-and-trade electricity tax. We’ve got to slow this thing down.”

On Friday a spokeswoman for Senator John McCain, Republican of Arizona, said Mr. McCain would lead a filibuster against the bill to give the program more money.

“Within a few weeks we will see that this process was abused by speculators and people who took advantage of what is basically a huge government subsidy of corporations that they already own,” Mr. McCain told Fox News last week.

Mr. McCain may have some support from Democrats who are also feeling skittish about the program and its potential cost. In a tweet on Friday morning, Senator Claire McCaskill, Democrat of Missouri, said she would “vote no on any extension” of the clunkers program, saying the “idea was to prime the pump not subsidize auto purchases forever.” A few hours later, she added that she would need to review the details of the House bill and how the program was working.

Reports from disgruntled car dealers about problems with the program have underscored its troubles. The government-run Web site Cars.gov has received two million hits and has repeatedly crashed, preventing many dealers from plugging in their information to process the rebates. Mr. LaHood said Sunday that the government was working to fix those glitches as well as “some bureaucratic problems” with processing mounds of paperwork.

In addition, dealers must destroy the old engines of cars being turned in before the government will reimburse them for the $3,500 or $4,500 discount they give the customer for buying a new, more-efficient vehicle. The Times’s Katharine Q. Seelye has captured the “laborious and potentially dangerous” car-crushing process on video.

Furthermore, some critics have noted that the requirement to demolish old engines could reduce their availability at junkyards, which could prevent people who cannot afford any kind of new car, rebate or not, from fixing up old vehicles. That has bolstered criticism from the right that the program was intended for “limousine liberals.”

Speaking on “Fox News Sunday,” William Kristol, the conservative editor of The Weekly Standard, said the rebates were going to middle-class people who would have eventually bought a new car anyhow.

Instead of helping the legions of unemployed, the money is going to a “bunch of upper-middle-class people who have some cars sitting around from 12 years ago,” Mr. Kristol said. “Now they’re just accelerating their purchase to get 4,500 bucks.”