Last week the Federal cash for clunkers program ran into trouble. The trouble was success. This program makes so much sense it is hard to believe it comes out of Washington. After all if we get better gas mileage we reduce our dependence on foreign oil as well as help the environment. We also create scrap we can sell to reduce the balance of payments. We help car dealers and the folks they employ. We buyers get a rebate!. This is so cool.
What this program and the tax credit for home buyers really illustrate is given the resources Americans will fix the problems we have in the economy. This lead me to thinking, OK the current administration did not create TARP. But they could use the rest of the TARP money to give it to us and let us spend our way out of this recession. Many have blogged about this and I think the Cash for clunkers program and the home buyers credit program have shown where we get the real bang for the buck !!!
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Charlie Ragonesi All Mountain Realty Big Canoe and Mountain Blog
On line at www.allmountainrealty.com Call at 706 579 1098
Charlie,
Remember how great you said these programs are when your taxes are raised significantly to pay for all these freebies.
Our future kids will paying for all of these programs. Thanks for the post.
From The Wall Street Journal this morning: The "cash for clunkers" program could end as early as Tuesday unless the Senate approves $2 billion in additional funding.
The editorial was not favorable:
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052970204313604574326531645819464.html
I do not agree with the higher taxes for future generations. But if the government is going to rob Peter to pay Paul then the money should not line the pockets of the corporations and banks.
Being the daughter of a car dealer it only makes me scratch my head.
shelton
Sadly, I cannot get other taxpayers to bail me out, how about you? No one is paying for my homes, vehicles, or anything else. Cap & trade will pop our electric bills by about 40%. obama-care is going to cost a fortune (there is a sentence in the bill that actually says "do not call this tax a tax"), and now obama says there are no guarantees there will not be a tax increase on everyone to pay for obama-care. I'm not happy my grandsons will be paying for these cars for decades or any of the other programs proving this administration has no fiscal responsibility and no fiscal intelligence.
Charlie - let's start from the end, the current administration did take part in the creation TARP, Obama voted for it, Bernanke wanted it, Geithner helped drive it, and congress rammed it through. Remember, it was only 7 pages when Paulson asked for it.
Yes, if people getting in line to get free money makes a program succesful, then C4C was successful. However, it was under implemented, under resourced, and under planned. Oops, guessed wrong again.
It is not going to significantly result in better gas mileage, cars only have to average 22mpg to qualify for purchase, and the old vehicle has to average less than 19 to qualify for trade.You can buy a new vehicle getting only 22 mpg but not a used one getting 30 mpg. It ain't about the gas as much as saving government motors and paying back the unions. If it was other than that, since it was in the stimulus bill passed in February, it could have been implemented before the bankruptcy and gov't/union takeover of Chrysler and GM, perhaps saving a few billion more of taxpayer auto bailout dollars.
The worst part of it is, once the program funding ends, whether this week or in another few billion dollars, auto sales will tank. Just look at historically what happens after rebate incentives end.
Charlie,
Look what you have started...you're hanging around with too many liberals...!!! LOL, Thanks, Fran