Conservative Talking Points was appalled that our government in 2009 was paying up to $4,500 for Americans to buy supposedly more fuel efficient cars. This program, which planned to last for months, went broke within days and destroyed working automobiles therefore hurting the poor.
Final Costs
· The final cost per vehicle for the Cash for Clunkers was $24,000. Of the nearly 690,000 vehicles sold under the program, only 125,000 of the sales could be credited directly to the Cash For Clunkers program. (Source: Fox News – Oct 2009)
Pathetic Funding and Planning
· Original Cash For Clunkers plan was funded with $1 Billion and designed to last for four months. It went broke in four days! This is our government at work. (Source: Fox News - Aug 2009)
· After the first billion was quickly blown the first week of the program our Congress passed another $2 Billion. This as our debt topples $12 Trillion dollars. (Source: LA Times - Aug 2009)
· "Even the $2 billion extra voted by the House isn't enough" said NY Sen. Schumer. He wanted at least $4 billion for the program! (Source: WBCS TV - Aug 2009)
· Dealers were told they would be reimbursed by the government within 10 days but after a month into the program only 2% of the funds owed the dealers had been paid. (Source: Milwaukee Journal Sentinel - Aug 2009)
Typical Government Bureaucracy
· When car dealers logged on to the CARS system their computer is considered a federal computer system and it is property of the United States government. A warning pops up on their screen and says, "Any and all uses of this system and all files on this system may be intercepted, monitored, recorded, copied, audited, inspected and disclosed to authorized CARS, DoT and law enforcement personnel, as well as authorized officials of other agencies, both domestic and foreign." (Source: Glenn Beck - Aug 2009)
· Every single deal is 20 sheets that must be scanned and submitted page by page through a government website that has had numerous problems. (Source: FOX 9 News Minneapolis-St. Paul - July 2009)
· A Toyota dealer in Orange County, Ca. said he has been paid for only 3 of the 92 claims he has sent to the government's Cash For Clunkers program before Aug 2, leaving him owed about $374,000 which now totals 450 unpaid claims filed for a total of 1,900,000. (Source: Fox News - Aug 13, 2009)
Hurting Many People
· This program could take 750,000 cars out of the used car market therefore jacking up prices and hurting lower income people. (Source: US News - Aug 2009)
· The car market is now tainted due to over 100,000 buyers putting off their purchase until now after hearing about the program. This put an unusual strain on inventory and caused numerous problems in the industry. (Source: US News - Aug 2009)
· Charities like Mission Solano of Fairfield California, which takes in donated used cars and then sells them on charitable car lots to generate income to fund their work, are going to be hurt by this program. (Source: Town Hall - Aug 2009)
· Now the average clunker-upgrader has an extra $400 in monthly car payments thereby diverting $1.5 billion from the retail economy. (Source: US News - Aug 2009)
· Foreign automobile makers were the majority winners of the Cash For Clunkers program with 8 out of 10 of the top purchased cars being from Toyota, Honda, Nissan and Hyundai with only Ford having 2 of the 10 top purchased. (Source: Washington Post - Aug 2009)
· Finally, after the program was over and financially drained did the Obama administration announce that the $4,500 rebates to car buyers would be counted as taxable income for 2009! (Source: Fox News - Aug 2009)
Won't Help Environment
· "It takes energy to shred and recycle metals; plastic components often cannot be recycled and end up as landfill cover, and the engine fluids, refrigerants and other chemicals essential to operating products end up as hazardous wastes." (Source: Gwen Ottinger, Chemical Heritage Foundation - Aug 2009)
· After dumping their clunker, they'll drive more since they are getting better mileage and end up burning an extra 61 gallons of gas over a year. Multiply that by 750,000 vehicles and they’ll burn an additional 46 million gallons of gas. (Source: CNW Marketing Research - Aug 2009)
· Since all clunkers had to be destroyed this created more waste since fewer parts of the engine could be sold, as well as higher costs for scrap yards [$700 to $1,200 to process a car] including transport and removing toxic items. (Source: FOX 9 News Minneapolis-St. Paul - July 2009)