“Cash for Clunkers” Complicated, Money Running Out: Mark Levin Asks, “If This Simple Program Is So Complicated, What Will Happen with Government Running Health Care?”
Posted By Vicki McClure Davidson on July 30, 2009
UPDATE, July 31, 2009:
Doug Powers, Michelle Malkin: Did ‘Cash for Clunkers’ just put Obamacare on the junk heap? Update: House adds $2 billion more to re-start the program
Predicted/opined the day before yesterday by Mark Levin, LOL.
The “Cash for Clunkers” government rebate program is the latest boondoggle in Washington. It’s breathtakingly complicated, the rules and regulations for auto dealers to follow run 136 pages, and the taxpayer money allotted is predicted to be used up by late August, long before its anticipated November conclusion. It’s being stopped now for consumers because the government still has to reimburse thousands of auto dealerships.
It seemed a decent idea on paper, but in typical Washington DC-politician-style reality (it was 100-percent authored by liberal Democrats), it’s not achieving anything close to what was promised. It’s so micromanaged, underfunded for demand (with so many families on the brink of financial collapse taking advantage of it, this was sorely short-sighted of the Obama administration) and regulated by the government that it could be an expensive nightmare for small car dealership business owners who still have not been reimbursed for giving customers $4,500 for their clunkers. And many have pre-paid for expensive ad campaigns for the next few months, until the government’s original November 1 deadline. Ads that they can’t stop or recall for a prematurely defunct program.
Ominous organ music is heard rising in the background… foreshadowing the imminent financial catastrophe and/or shunning of ObamaCare and the Waxman-Markey global warming energy tax bill…
Bestselling author (Liberty and Tyranny, A Conservative Manifesto) and radio talk show host Mark Levin addresses this in his commentary about “Cash for Clunkers,” from his July 29, 2009 radio show:
Now ladies and gentlemen, I want to do an example by comparison, an example by comparison. We keep hearing Obama talking about efficiencies, you know, good management, the government will clean things up… Well, he and his friends just passed this $4,500 “Cash for Clunkers” bill, remember that? $4,500? A fresh piece of legislation. How complicated can it be? You turn in a clunker, you get $4,500, right?
WRONG.
This from Twin Cities Star Tribune… now I bring this up because, again, as I explained yesterday, imagine how complicated health care is. I mean, it is an extraordinarily complicated matter, even in your own life, let alone with 300 million people. And if we can’t get a check cut from Washington to the person who is turning in the clunker, it is just yet another warning of the disaster that looms if we allow these politicians and bureaucrats, statists all, to take us where they want us to go. from Twin Cities Star Tribune:
Car dealers across the Twin Cities area reported busy showrooms and low inventories Tuesday as customers scrambled to unload their old gas guzzlers and save $3,500 or $4,500 on a new, more fuel-efficient car under the federal government’s $1 billion Cash for Clunkers program.
At Morrie’s Minnetonka Ford/Lincoln/Mercury, the receptionist started a waiting list for the finance department, the first time she ever had to do so. One dealership in Coon Rapids ran out of two of the eligible cars, the Jeep Patriot and Compass.
But dealers reported problems with the government’s online system to get the transactions approved by the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA), which is running the program.
Scott Lambert, vice president of the Minnesota Auto Dealers Association, said he was “astounded” to learn at a meeting Tuesday representing about 150 Minnesota dealers that not one has had a deal approved.
“We had dealers representing 1,500 to 2,000 transactions,” he said. “We asked how many had a deal approved yet, and not one hand went up.”
Lambert said the government has created a program that’s “so big and cumbersome that it can’t find a way to accept anything. We’re sending in good, reliable deals.”
It’s nerve-racking for the dealers, he said, because they have given the customer $4,500 and now the dealers need to be reimbursed.
…The program took effect July 1, but traffic at dealerships is up now because dealers had been reluctant to participate until the rules were published, which happened Friday. The program expires once the $1 billion is gone or Nov. 1, whichever comes first, prompting many to take advantage early.
From CBS News:
“Clunkers” Cash Going Fast
By Stephen W. Smith
July 30, 2009More than 10 percent of the money allocated to the government’s “Cash for Clunkers” program has already been doled out, according to the Detroit News.
As of Wednesday, $96 million in vouchers had been submitted for reimbursement, the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration said. U.S. Rep. Candice Miller said that the program’s coffers could run dry in “a matter of weeks.”
The program is apparently accelerating despite criticism that many drivers with fuel-inefficient cars don’t qualify under the strict guidelines.
The stringent requirements have led to confusion and frustration for dealers and customers, leading some critics to question how a program seemingly so well-intentioned got so far off track, CBS News correspondent Jeff Glor reported last week. Cars and trucks must be 1984 models or newer to be eligible for a trade-in rebate. They must get 18 miles per gallon or less in combined highway/city rating – based on the “Estimated New EPA MPG” ratings available at www.fueleconomy.gov.
So a 1993 Mercury Grand Marquis – a boat of a roadster with a big V-8 engine – would not qualify, because its original, official miles per gallon was 19.
For a current list of cars (as of July 30) that are not eligible, head over to Jalopnik: Full List Of Disqualified Cars Under Cash For Clunkers Refresh.
Related reading:
Ancavge: Cash for Clunkers: Another Government Boondoogle
Carpe Diem: Cash for Clunkers: 136 Pages of Rules and Regs; How Many Pages for Government Health Care?
The Patriot Room: That was fast: Cash for Clunkers junked
Pundit & Pundette: Obama’s Beer Summit and other clunkers
Michigan Taxes Too Much: Detroit’s New Popularity Proves Costly
Evangelical Gateway: Morning Report, Weekend Edition: Is Cash for Clunkers Clunked? Are Obama’s Numbers Tanking? Is Our Health Care Free? Does McCain Regret Palin?
KTAR.com: ‘Clunker’ identified as fatal hit-run vehicle
The Daley Gator: The latest addition to the scrap heap of failed Liberal ideas?
Michelle Malkin: Cash for Clunkers, R.I.P. – for now and Roll call vote: Senate rejects Cash-for-Clunkers aid to charities and poor and Obama lied, transparency died, Pt. 10,001: No Cash for Clunkers disclosure and Cash for clunkers junked… but dealer ads still running
CNN Money: Cash for Clunkers list confusion
The Other McCain: ‘Get your clunkers for nothing, and your cash for free…’
Jeffrey Jena, Big Hollywood: Stand Up Notes From Flyover Country: CARS Program Previews Obamacare
Cato @ Liberty: Using ‘Cash for Clunkers’ Money to Buy a Muscle Car
Hot Air: Just a reminder: Cash for Clunkers requires destroying perfectly usable cars and The ObamaCare-CRA-TARP-Clunker lesson and Cash for clunkers runs out of money … after one week; Update: Feds scramble to save program and Surprise: Stimulus not stimulating construction industry, infrastructure repair
Wake Up Black America: If government can’t even run a simple automobile incentive program right, why should they be trusted with your healthcare?
Suzanne Ziegler, StarTribune.com: The Cash for Clunkers program has buyers ready to spend, but dealers are running into problems getting rebates approved.
Watcher of Weasels: How Long Until Obama Blames Bush for Cash for Clunkers Failure
Ztower: Totally Unprepared For Stimulus Effort That Actually Works, Speaker Pelosi Scrambles For Answers!
Greg Gutfeld, Big Hollywood: Daily Gut: Cash for Clunkers
Amateur Asset Allocator: Clunkers For Cash: Is It Even Worth It?
The Powers That Be: ‘Cash for Clunkers’ Suspended
USA Today: Government suspends ‘cash for clunkers’ program
Dakota Voice: Cash for Clunkers: Fraud Upon Fraud
Freedom Eden: Cash for Clunkers
Queer Stuff: Cash for Clunkers: subsidizing the automobile industry or improving the environment?
A Conservative Wanderer: “Cash For Clunkers” – So You Think You Qualify?
Cash for Clunkers: Cash for Clunkers Math Seeing Zeros
Live little – focusing on small communities: Cash for Clunkers, Signatures for Better Streets (Wow, that wasn’t nearly as catchy as I wanted it to be)
bovojeres Blog: The Cash For Clunkers Program Will Not Work – Amateur Asset Allocator
Living Car Free: Why Ca$h for Clunkers won’t work
Innocent Bystanders: Cash for Clunkers Takes Effect. Maybe.
Soylent Green: Cash 4 Clunkers–Broke In 1 Week
Michelle Malkin: Waxman shortcircuits debate to ram eco-taxes through Congress
Breitbart.com: House Dems narrow energy, climate bill differences
About the author
We’ll know ObamaCare is in financial trouble when they announce a “Cash for Geezers” trade-in program…