Cash For Clunkers – Tax Payers On Hook For $4 Billion
Does your neighbor have an old car, maybe even one that is just 5 or 6 years old but does not get good mileage anymore? Well guess what, YOU will be paying him or her upwards of $4,500 in order for them to go out and buy a brand new car from the very companies that you also paid for to bail them out of their own mess.
This is just out of control…
The House on Tuesday waded deeper into the rescue of the troubled auto industry when it passed a $4 billion plan to subsidize new cars sales for consumers who scrap old ones.
By a vote of 298-119, the House approved the “cash for clunkers” program.
The measure would give consumers vouchers worth as much as $4,500 to turn in gas guzzlers and buy new cars that are more fuel efficient.
The legislation now goes to the Senate. President Obama has said he supports such a measure.
The House bill would go into effect within 30 days of enactment but it is not retroactive for new purchases made earlier this year.
The move by the House would deepen the federal government’s involvement in the auto industry, only a week after federal officials announced spending another $30 billion in addition to the $19.4 billion already given to GM to cover its losses and operations.
A $3,500 subsidy can be used toward purchasing cars and vans that are more fuel efficient than the older clunkers by four miles per gallon. A $4,500 subsidy can be used toward purchasing cars and vans that are more fuel efficient than older cars by 10 miles per gallon. [...] Source: CNN
Two hundred ninety-eight members of the House who need to find another job: vote them out.
I agree. It is definitely time for term limits and to vote them all out of office.
This government has a tendency to reward the one who cause problem. Bankers, mortgage brokers, realtors and subprimers got rewarded at taxpayers’ expense, and now they want to reward the ones who produce more pollution with vouchers. Is this Obama’s idea of “being green”? They should instead impose pollution tax on the gas guzzlers.
Actually, the Bam-Bam administration picked that idea right from the French government. These premiums help 1° to stimulate the automobile sector by favoring a renewal of cars; 2° to help the environment as older, less efficient cars are being retired from the market.
In France, it especially favored people buying smaller cheaper cars. Something that sorely needed in the US.
FM – I think its the German’s who came up with this novel idea. I am more in support of this model rather than pure bailouts.
I, for one, don’t want a government that is using passive aggressive actions to change my behavior. I want to be free and in charge of my own decisions. I don’t want a mother or father state of government.
Caldera, you are going to have to recognize that your actions affect others. And your freedom stops where starts that of the other. Here this is a positive encouragement, not an obligation whatsoever.
And sorry, but you’re not free to kill people around you to take an absurd example: you are bound by rules and laws.
The government has thus to pursue its policies, on the condition that they serve the Common Good.
FM,
I agree all actions in some way affect others. It is each person’s responsibility to insure individual actions have the least amount of negative complications. Your comment, “And sorry, but you’re not free to kill people around you to take an absurd example: you are bound by rules and laws.” I agree you offered an absurd example and that all are bound by limited rules and laws.
Another giveaway to the wealthy. I’m driving around a 13-year old car that gets 26mpg so I’m not eligible even if I used the tradein to get a car that gets 40mpg. Of course, if I owned an Escalade or Hummer, I qualify, even if my new car just guzzles a bit less. 99% of the people who participate in this program will just be getting a reward for being rich or having spent years living beyond their means.