24 Votes

Cash For Clunkers Stalled- 1 Billion Of OUR Tax Dollars Disappears In 4 Days!!

Agent001 submitted on 7/31/2009 Official Bell & Ross Timestamp: 1:44:33 AM

36 user comments | Category: Spy Shots | Source: www.autospies.com

Tag Links: Cash For Clunkers, Free Healthcare

The government's cash for clunkers program has burned through its $1 billion budget in less than a week as car buyers swarmed dealerships, and federal officials are scrambling to find more money to keep it going, according to government sources.

The program, designed to jump-start car sales and improve the fuel efficiency of the nation's auto fleet, unleashed a wave of pent-up demand that threatened to exhaust funds before dealers could be fully reimbursed for rebates under the plan.

As word got out late Thursday that the program might be suspended at midnight, some car dealers reported a surge in nighttime buyers. At Toyota of Hollywood, general manager Don Mushin said he expected to sell 15 vehicles before closing.

If you ask us, this is one telling omen of how much money will be spent in the first months of free healthcare, as millions have been probably waited to get themselves fixed, in anticipation of it becoming free.

Do you think cash for clunkers achieved its goal or was it another huge waste?

It will also be interesting to see what percentage of the new cars bought were imports...

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Cash For Clunkers Stalled- 1 Billion Of OUR Tax Dollars Disappears In 4 Days!!

About the Author

The way a man treats his car is how he treats himself.
— Agent001 (View Profile)

User Comments

meh, it's a billion and at least we got something for it. under Bush our debt went from $5,5 trillion to $10 trillion and I still don't have a clue what we got for that money..?
— DinamoR (View Profile)

Posted on 7/31/2009 2:10:04 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 4

This comment says it all IMHO:

Give away free money and it will be gone in less than 5 days. No jobs created. No sustained sales.
This is not the way to stimulate the economy.

001
— Agent001 (View Profile)

Posted on 7/31/2009 2:19:02 AM | | Votes: 3

9/11, Katrina, Iraq/Afghan wars, Medicare D,TSA etc..... I guess they don't count.

P.S.,, 1 Billion @ 4500 dollars per car, max credit = 200,000+ vehicles sold in 5 days? Something sounds fishy..... unless there are most costs associated with these "incentives", ie. does the govt fit the bill for storing, transporting and disposing of these vehicles etc.?

None-the-less, even if total expenses for each sale were 10k(pushing it), you are talking 100,000 vehicles sold in a matter of 5 days, seems unrealistic.
— kablaam (View Profile)

Posted on 7/31/2009 2:53:30 AM | | Votes: 1

We could fund 5000 of these program for the money Bush burned through in the last 8 years. I would be driving such a nice car now.
— thetruth01 (View Profile)

Posted on 7/31/2009 12:47:05 PM | | Votes: 4

Why am I an A-hole for educating you, that even unplanned events/tragedies contribute to the deficit?

Think what you may sheep.
— kablaam (View Profile)

Posted on 7/31/2009 2:19:53 PM | | Votes: 2

educating us? LOL Bush didn't care about Katrina. And after 9/11 he invaded Iraq- a country that had nothing to do with 9/11 while bin laden and his crew are still out there.

repubs flushed TRILLIONS down the toilet and we got NOTHING to show for it. at least after the democrats spend some money we will have some nice investments in our future
— DinamoR (View Profile)

Posted on 7/31/2009 8:33:16 PM | | Votes: 4

First off, I didn't even like Bush....Do you know why? Because he was a turn-coat Liberal. I was just, yes, EDUCATING your young friend there about where the majority of his deficit originated. I know where Obama's defecit is originating, on spending bills that they are pushing down America's throat w/o even reading the bills? eh? What happened to those promises of the 5 days review, public debates of all Bills? Transparency? No Tax-Cuts for those under 250k? Broken promises! The Messiah LIED to you and you took it like a Man!

P.S. How many of your Liberal cronies voted for the Iraq war, save me your BS!
— kablaam (View Profile)

Posted on 8/4/2009 3:59:27 PM | | Votes: 1

The brilliant politicians that gave us this gem of a bill now want to control all of our healthcare. Wonderful.
— HSCenterconsole (View Profile)

Posted on 7/31/2009 8:20:54 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 0

Something isn't right here. The feds said that it hoped to move 200,000 vehicles through the system in total. Here are the stats since July 29th.

OFFICIAL D.O.T. CARS PROGRAM STATISTICS

At July 29, 2009 (4:00 PM)

Dealer Registrations:

Number Submitted 23,005

Number Approved 19,328

Dealer Transactions:

Number Submitted 22,782

Dollars Submitted $95.9M

Hotline Contacts:

Latest day (July 28)
56,430

Cumulative (July 3-July 25)
98,481

Website Visits:

Latest day (July 28)
652,380

Cumulative (June 22-July 28)
5,735,202

Does that mean 180,000 cars sold in the next two days?
— Agent009 (View Profile)

Posted on 7/31/2009 8:44:24 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1

Ok here is the scoop!

A Thursday survey by the National Automobile Dealers Association of 2,000 dealers found evidence of a backlog of nearly 200,000 pending claims that, if filed, would probably deplete the program's $1 billion budget, an NADA spokesman said.
— Agent009 (View Profile)

Posted on 7/31/2009 12:44:17 PM | | Votes: 2

It has been reported that there is a large backlog of orders (beyond the 23,000 or so already completed) which has created a concern that at some point money will run out while orders are still in the pipeline, creating even worse ill will when buyers have their orders cancelled. It may well be that this is a temporary suspension, while a mechanism is developed to prevent that eventuality. I would say it's incredibly poor planning, but no, it's the government, so there's nothing incredible about it.

It bears repeating, as was said above, that these are the clowns currently making a play to control health care. Won't it be sweet when they suspend certain aspects of health care while they tinker with the cost or delivery mechanism, leaving you either temporarily or permanently high-and-dry.
— TechRightGuy (View Profile)

Posted on 7/31/2009 9:37:07 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: -1

So what's the difference when you're already high and dried under the current system? Lets bring those GOP jackasses back to run things eh? That way the rich get the best care while the poor and middle class pay for it.
— Badgewhore (View Profile)

Posted on 8/3/2009 3:21:09 AM | | Votes: 2

.
— SHOWTIME (View Profile)

Posted on 7/31/2009 9:48:18 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: -2

Great program accomplishing what it was designed to do: stimulate car sales, reduce fuel consumption, and emissions. Nothing else has worked this well to date. Government is the buyer/stimulator of last resort in cases like this. Germany and UK did the same with similar success meeting goals.

If Healthcare reform does what it is designed to do: reduce costs and ensure universal coverage, fantastic. If it doesn't reduce costs, you are right, we're f----d.

DOT announced minutes ago its being extended. Keep buying everyone!
— sdcarguy (View Profile)

Posted on 7/31/2009 9:52:06 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1

How many stories came out telling us that Europe was kickin our a** in auto slaes cuz of these program the last several months. Now we're gonna get back in the game, for just a bilion dollars. Thats just $3 a person. I'll skip my latte this morning. And probably half of that will be returned in sales tax revenue anyway. I guess I can still get a regular coffee.
— thetruth01 (View Profile)

Posted on 7/31/2009 12:50:26 PM | | Votes: 2

I like the concept of getting gas guzzlers off the road into more economical cars, but there was never a long term plan involved using CARS... That's my only beef
— adamsaf723 (View Profile)

Posted on 7/31/2009 10:37:58 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 2

I guess they underestimated how many clunkers were out there.
— PlanB (View Profile)

Posted on 7/31/2009 10:44:29 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 4

there's something fishy going on here. Even if everyone qualified for the full $4500 that would mean selling over 217,000 qualifying cars to hit the $978 million or whatever it was. There's no way they've sold anywhere near 217,000 new cars over the last week period, let alone 217,000 that qualified for this program.
— JRobUSC (View Profile)

Posted on 7/31/2009 11:40:19 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1

NADA F up and all the Cheney/Bush heinykissers here lick it up. They meant to say 20,000, not 200,000 vehicle sold.
— Badgewhore (View Profile)

Posted on 8/3/2009 3:26:18 AM | | Votes: 1

I have to believe there is a better way to spend 1B to boost the economy and improve mpg. It will be interesting to see what the results of this are though.
— sholemon (View Profile)

Posted on 7/31/2009 12:26:37 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 2

Um, is that even a question/debate? The point of the program was to give a Billion dollar handout of taxpayer dollars to the auto industry, to help the transition to their nationalization (and make it kinda look like consumers were happy about it, based on sales numbers). It's also a gigantic waste of taxpayer dollars, as you would expect from this government. It accomplished both goals (as likely will whatever followup gigantic waste(s) our government appropriates); the only people who might be disappointed are people under the delusion that there was some other goal here.
— sigmabody (View Profile)

Posted on 7/31/2009 12:29:24 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 0

This government program worked.

200,000 working families got an immediate, tangible benefit. Dealers and salesman have a nice paycheck this month, automakers clear out some inventory, and we get low mileage trucks off the road.

For a lousy billion? sounds good to me.
— thetruth01 (View Profile)

Posted on 7/31/2009 12:45:45 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 2

Let's not forget the difference between handing out fish, and teaching people to fish. This billion dollars will have no lasting affect on the economy, because it is *not* an investment. There can be no sustained affect from such a one-shot hand-out, only a temporary bump. After that, the piper will still want to be paid; we're already being lectured (quite rightly) by the Chinese government which owns a billion trillion gazillion dollars of US Treasury debt that massive inflation will follow this massive spending, as it always does, and then we won't be able to afford anything. Especially all those really cool imported goods we all enjoy so much, you know, like cars, because our hyper-inflated dollars are worth squat. Meanwhile the American public can't seem to think past "yay! everybody can haz cheezeburgers today!". Tomorrow? Who cares about tomorrow?
— TechRightGuy (View Profile)

Posted on 7/31/2009 5:34:57 PM | | Votes: -1

Worked better than they expected! It is good to see a program actually work, unlike the past years where it failed and caused a massive mess.
— PerformanceGuy (View Profile)

Posted on 7/31/2009 1:15:24 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1

New cars are safer too, both for the buyers and the rest of us on the road.

To keep the math easy say you buy a $45K car with the $4.5K credit.
$1B in credits generated $10B in car sales.

It worked, enjoy it.

— sdcarguy (View Profile)

Posted on 7/31/2009 1:59:05 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 2

Those of you that think this is good can't see the foreest for the trees. This whole gov intervention is dangerous. Wait when Inflation hits and interest rates go to 20+ percent. You cannot run a country on unearned tax dollars period.
— bfghemicuda (View Profile)

Posted on 7/31/2009 5:03:20 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 0

Danger, Will Robinson, Danger. The government just intervened!!!!! for a couple billion dollars. CRASH...thats the sky falling.

Govt intervenes in everything. Why are so many heads in the sand about this? It doesnt make us socialist. Not that we have been capitalist for the past 100 years anyway. Did you walk or drive on a road today? Any bridges or tunnels on the way? How was that water you drank? Did you get sick from your lunch, or wa it free of disease? Did you see a blue or a brown sky? Were you homeschooled? Have you flown lately?
— thetruth01 (View Profile)

Posted on 7/31/2009 6:13:00 PM | | Votes: 1

Wow, what a great economics lesson, thanks. Government (properly so) taking responsibility for infrastructure is exactly the same as redistributing wealth. Exactly the same as intervening in free markets to hand pick the companies that are to survive, and the ones that will be allowed to fail. Exactly the same as determining which dealers are to close, and which ones should not be allowed to close, and should be re-opened at the behest of their member of Congress.

Government intervenes in everything? Well, thankfully not yet, but yes, we're getting there. Check the Constitution, and let me know where we see that the Congress has any Constitution authority whatsoever for intervening in private enterprise as they have been; for picking industries to throw cash at; for any of the interventionism whatsoever which has been going on since last summer. Without Constitutional authority, we are then admitting we are no longer a nation of law, but rather, a nation that does whatever several hundred legislators in Washington decide to do at the moment, whether the Constitution grants them the authority for it or not. Such a path does not have a pretty end. I suspect we are all destined to find this out.

— TechRightGuy (View Profile)

Posted on 7/31/2009 7:01:22 PM | | Votes: 1

DinamoR,
It took Dubya 8 years to achieve $4.5 trillion in debt. It only took Jesus 9 months to rack up $1 trillion and the year's not even over yet.

You know where Bush's money went, into wars and Haliburton. Where'd Jesus' debt go? Apparently it went to banks and infrastructure but there's proof for neither, and there's no jobs either.

In relative/per capita terms, Canada didn't spend nearly as much as the U.S. and we're on our way out of the recession.

Face it, Obama = Bush 3rd term, Democrats are just too embarassed to admit they were played like a Clinton saxophone.
— huu76 (View Profile)

Posted on 8/1/2009 12:34:48 AM | reply to this comment | Votes: -2

promote the idea of tax fraud and you wont feel so bad ; )
— KZ258 (View Profile)

Posted on 8/1/2009 6:35:44 PM | reply to this comment | Votes: 1

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Cash For Clunkers Stalled- 1 Billion Of OUR Tax Dollars Disappears In 4 Days!!

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