OMG. This is fabulous news!
The NHTSA has suspended the CARS (aka: Cash for Clunkers) program effective midnight tonight! They had expected their ONE BILLION DOLLAR BUDGET to last at least a couple months, but it appears the program will run out of money inside of the first week. As such, the program has been put on hold until they can figure out how to better run the show.
The program, ripe with false claims of reducing dependence on foreign oil, reducing emissions, and getting “clunkers” off the road fails on all cylinders. I’ve been vehemently against it for months. Upon receipt of one of these qualifying cars – which must have been registered and insured by the owner AND be drivable for 12 consecutive months prior to turn-in – the dealerships have been advised to fill the engines with sodium silicate and run them until these perfectly functional, reliable engines are flatly destroyed on the spot.
Supporters will say these are junk engines that pollute and ruin the world for little babies and all that, but if a Chevy Blazer qualifies to be destroyed, but the S-10 pickup truck with the same engine in it does not, what does that say about their logic? It says their concerns are not about reducing emissions or dependence on oil. It says they’re not concerned about helping the people of limited means who have actual clunkers that would happily visit their local dealership if they could get some government help in repairing their vehicles. It says they’re only interested in funneling even more money into a failing industry which refuses to accept the fact that there isn’t as much demand for their product as there once was. Plain and simple? This is political money laundering.
The scary thing about this suspension is that, even though the hungry dealerships have been taking in “clunkers” hand over fist for a month, now, none of them have been reimbursed by the government and most of them still don’t know if they will be reimbursed at all! Imagine taking a perfectly good car in trade, rendering it scrap, only to find you’re SOL and not getting paid for it! How could this travesty of ignorance and greed affect this already trembling industry?
It’s also scary to think our “representatives” in Washington will simply ante up more funding for the program. Originally, they wanted $4Bn, but if they’ve gone through $1Bn in less than a week, do we really need to piss away another $3Bn in the next two weeks (given fears of the funds running out, I would expect a massive run on the dealerships). This program is burning through cash faster than General Motors.
Fortunately, Dianne Feinstein (California) has already stated that she will fight against any more funding for this program unless the mileage requirements for the replacement vehicles are vastly increased. If we’re going to be willfully detroying perfectly good vehicles under the premise of increasing efficiency, then we should be requiring more fuel efficient replacements. None of this $4500 off a new SUV that gets just 5mpg better than the last one.
While it’s mildly comforting to see that a lot of the vehicles being scrapped are GM products and that the replacements are Hyundais and Hondas, it’s still a program which reflect poorly on the greed and irresponsibility of our modern society. Would they advocate anyone dropping out of high school in order to get a discount on college? How about an existing house being burned down in exchange for a credit towards a brand new house? Of course they wouldn’t.
If there are any inefficient, old clunkers anywhere in America in need of being curshed and promptly replaced, it’s very likely the lobbyist-friendly “representatives” in Washington DC who have voted in favor of this failed enterprise from the start.