Update on Cash For Clunkers
August 17th, 2009
Just a short update on the whole “CARS” program. As you can probably tell from my earlier post, I am somewhat underwhelmed by the government’s attempts to get Americans to drive the kinds of cars they want us to drive (All while redistributing a little wealth). Now it seems as though they are doing whatever they can bail on their end of the 3 billion dollar ‘bargain’.
As if they hadn’t messed with dealerships enough by closing so many of them with the government takeover of both GM and Chrysler, the bureaucrats overseeing this “CARS” program are now using their power to deny 4 out of 5 claims, mostly due to minor errors. That means the dealers are out the cash because they’ve already made the deal with the consumer. If you are gonna start a huge government program, with regular people and sales guys doing all the paperwork, I think you’re gonna need to be a little more flexible. But, of course they knew these little errors were going to happen, which means that they will need more people to help out with reviewing the claims, or they can turn it down all together because Larry the car salesman forgot to dot the I’s and cross the T’s.
If pushing car dealers out of business was part of the plan, they are well on their way.
Supposedly this was to help stimulate the economy as well as get folks into more fuel efficient vehicles. At least that was the line. The DOT has 255 people reviewing these claims from car dealers! 3 billion dollars spent on a nationwide program, and they have 255 people on it? Government spending at it’s best folks! Throw all kinds of too good to be true money (our tax dollars) at something, and then assign two guys to figure it all out, further clogging the system.
So, they have had a good measure of success in getting people to turn in their old cars, supposed gas guzzlers, and drive away in a shiny new one. Let’s not forget that they are selling mostly foreign cars by the way. The old cars are then destroyed on the spot, rather than allowing them (at least the ones that are safe and drivable) to be given to charities for folks that could really use a vehicle to get to work. Genius.
What a mess.
It’s almost as if certain people want to destroy our economy and the automotive industry is just an easy target.
I can’t wait ’til these guys are in charge of my health care.
