"Cash for Clunkers" was a "Clunker"

I, like most of you, was disappointed when the government took money from the taxpayers and gave it to people to trade in their cars. Supposedly, the program was to remove old and inefficient cars from use and boost the economy by increasing car sales. The price tag to the taxpayers was to be $4,500 per clunker. Well, it didn't work out that way. A government program that didn't go the way it was supposed to! Can you believe that?

As Paul Harvey used to say, "Now, here's the rest of the story!" The "Cash for Clunkers" program actually cost the taxpayers $24,000 per car, not the $4,500 that had outraged almost everyone. However, that is only a 600% overrun, better than most government-run programs. Still think the proposed health care program will only cost a trillion per year?

Another big problem with the Clunkers program was that it did not increase auto sales. Sure, sales increased during the month it took to burn three billion dollars of taxpayer money but then sales dropped off dramatically. Auto dealers were already running big incentive programs during the first month introduction of new cars because people were not buying. Our tax dollars were used to shift car buying, not increase it.

Another thing that happened with the clunker program that surprised a lot of people was well-to-do people trading in older cars on new luxury cars. Luxury cars from Europe and Asia, not America!

Finally, a big negative consequence to the Clunker Program is the removal of millions of good used cars from the inventory that poor and disadvantaged people usually buy because they cannot afford new ones. So the final summary of this program is the poor people got screwed and the taxpayers got robbed- the trademark of government run programs...