Crossposted from DemConWatch
The Cash for Clunkers program, which paid up to $4,500 for old, low mileage cars when traded in on a new car, has been put on hold. Close to 23,000 cars were purchased under the program in the first week, exhausting over $850,000,000 of the billion dollars allocated for the program. It's likely that more cars were actually traded in under the program as not all the paperwork has been filed by the dealers. The money, by the way, goes from the government to the dealers and is applied to the downpayment.
The program, therefore, is about out of money.
They don't seem to know where to get more money.
I have an idea, because I know where there is $300 billion (less about a quarter of a million or so) hiding out, unspent. We wrote a few months ago about a Baby Bush program to save homeowners from foreclosure. There was ONE recipient.
Take that money. It's just sitting.
While I've never been a great supporter of the Cash for Clunkers program, it appears to be doing exactly what it is supposed to do: getting people to buy new cars. I heard on the news this morning that an average of 13 cars were sold in the past week by each of the participating dealers. This is good: more cars sold, more accessories bought, fewer big pollution cars on the road, decreased gas consumption due to increased mileage (okay, that's the specious part, but let's go with it), more local dealer profits, saved jobs....it's all good.
It would seem that if money is allocated for something that doesn't work, and you have a program which contributes directly to the economy, you'd shift the monies.