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White House staff and congressional lawmakers are meeting today to try to find a way to keep the U.S. government’s “cash for clunkers” program running, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs said.
The popular program remains in operation, Gibbs said.
“If you were planning on going to buy a car this weekend, using this program, this program continues to run,” Gibbs said at a morning White House briefing. “If you meet the requirements of the program, the certificates will be honored.”
Gibbs said the Obama administration and congressional leaders are working today “to find and develop ways to continue to fund” this $1 billion program, which may be out of cash after a week of operation.
The incentive program, formally known as the Car Allowance Rebate System, provides credits of as much as $4,500 to new-auto buyers who turn in an older vehicle to be scrapped. Lawmakers had expected the $1 billion program to generate about 250,000 sales and to have enough money to last until about Nov. 1.
Har!
The Cash for Clunker campaign is a really great way to get rid of the gas guzzling light trucks, old cars, and SUVs off the road. It’s just sad that it’s not that successful at the moment.
The program is successful enough to run out of money but then Congress always underestimates that part.
Wow, they pour sodium silicate into the engine then run it until the thing ceases. What a colossal waste. Now you have a car that you can’t even dispose of. The junk yards don’t want them and they are turning dealerships into junkyards.
Way to GO, CONGRESS! And these are the guys that want to control your health care. I can hear it now. “Nope, you are too sick. We will only pay for your lethal injection and the recycling of your body parts.”
Your tax dollars at work, again. And, yes, I have given endless shit to my friends who took advantage of this travesty on congressional fiscal irresponsibility. My friends figure that this is the only time they will ever get their tax dollars back from Washington. I see their twisted logic but I don’t agree with it.
This is what happens with social engineering. The libs hold out a carrot and the vultures swoop in to devour the spoils. There is enough shame to go around for everyone involved.
Is this what we want? Do we want this level of government meddling in the economy and our society? And do we condone these half-baked schemes to buy votes? Damn, I fear for what lies ahead.
Oh, Congress will say that, even though the program is flawed, we should throw more money at it. That will fix everything!
Why not just buy everyone a new car and be done with it?
#19, how do you blame the republicans for this, as they are clearly the minority party?
Ridiculous program. If you look at the cars that are qualified for purchase, (list on Edmunds.com) there are plenty of heavy trucks and cadillacs etc. on the list. What a ridiculous waste of money.
Heard a joke the other day:
The boss gives me a $100 to do a project. The project is a complete failure.
Now I demand the boss give me a $1,000 to do another project.
The funny part is that my boss is such a chump, he’ll give me the money.
I’ve got mine, who cares about anyone else.
As the great philosopher, Ross Perot, was fond of saying, “The Devil is in the details.”
I think the program is great, except that you can us American tax dollars to buy foreign-made cars.
American tax dollars should only go to products made by Americans in America.
Good idea but bad execution.
This resulted in 1,000′s of republican owned Hummer’s being turned in. A much better plan:
- Hummer not qualify
- 35 mph for new car
- 2,000 credit for new car
- Raise prop taxes on Hummer owners
- Tax the church
#28
Tax the church? Stop smoking crack my friend…
#27 — Define American? Most products produced today are international assemblies. Corporate office may be overseas but assembly plants are located in America. GM sales rebranded Toyota products that are assembled in California. I may be mistaken but almost half of GM plants are in another country. Toyota, Nissan, Honda and Subaru have assembly plants here in America. Parts for automobiles come from all over the world now.
There may be an automobile that has all parts made in America, assembled in America with the corporate office located in America but that vehicle will be hard to find.
The “Buy American” movement is not practical.
#1 – mileage isn’t even something that should be on the sticker – it’s totally irrelevant to the vehicle you buy. You buy what serves your needs, which is why “more efficient” is fine if it meets two requirements A) NOT smaller/less powerful, B)NOT more expensive.
Americans are not like the rest of the world, we live real lives and need real vehicles.
I’ve never seen a more unAmerican group that the current Democratic party.
As with most government programs, the success of the “cash for clunkers” program is not measured in how well the consequences of the program align with the stated goals of its advocates. Nor is it measured by any economic impacts the consequences might cause. Instead, just like the example of the public library in George Dance’s recent article about Booze and books, the success is measured by participation or usage, not by any measure of the value provides or harm it does to our economy. The trick is to define the program specifically so that it has a known demand so the usage is high. Media spin and politics will make sure the right people hear the program was successful and beneficial. I heard a bit on NPR just today about the downstream benefits that recycling all these old cars has. Ridiculous of course, but the perception amongst the voters is far more important than the actual results and consequences. Certainly there will be follow-on programs, cash for major appliances, cash for tools, etc.