FanNation - The Republic of Sport

Nah, I don't want a new car subsidized by the tax payer, I want to trade in my representatives for whatever I can get.

Nancy Pelosi, our brilliant speaker of the house, announced how successful the "cash for clunkers" program has been. 

-And she's right-

The Federal Government was extremely successful at giving away a Billion tax payer dollars in little more than a week. Once upon a time, that was a remarkable achievement on capital hill. These days, when true success is measured in giving away trillions of dollars, Ms. Pelosi isn't satisfied. She's been SO good at giving away your money, they are going to triple it!

And you should be happy about this! Afterall, IF you happen to be in the market for a new car, you'll get $3500-$4500 in a Government hand out for your "trade in" as long as the car you are trading gets 4MPG less than the one you are buying.

Oh, and it's -also- going to help save the environment (even though man-made global warming has been exposed as a hoax) and conserve energy. These are all good things, right?

(On a side note, it will help keep overpaid union autoworkers employed for a few more months.)

It's bait and switch, folks. People like you and I got tired of watching the federal Government give continuous handouts to the auto industry, but  the administration refused to admit doing so was a failure with nine zero's on the end. Knowing the political fallout that would occur by writing GM and Chrysler yet another huge check, they came up with this scheme to give them the money, and make you like it.

Except the entire thing is bogus.

For starters, who drives true "clunkers"? Damn sure not people who can afford to buy a new car. Nobody is trading in their 1972 Impala  for a $40k Chevy Hybrid just because the Government is kicking in four grand. 

Republican or Democrat, Conservative or Liberal, doesn't matter. Hell, I don't care if you are Robin Hood himself. If you read what I'm about to show you, and you aren't outraged, then either you just bought a new car or you don't pay taxes. There can be no other rational reason to accept this program.

According to Edmunds.com, about 200,000 old cars would be traded in every quarter (the length this program was supposed to last) without the program, or any Government subsidy whatsoever.

That's 200k cars that would be bought ANYWAY, that you and I are paying $4,000 each for on average. Just because. Awfully nice of us, huh? Yes, the nice folks on capital hill are paying $800,000,000 toward cars that were going to be bought ANYHOW.

The number of actual cars that will be purchased -because- of this program, you know, what the program is designed to encourage, is estimated to be somewhere in the neighborhood of 55,000.

Stay with me here...

According to Edmonds, the marginal cost to us  taxpayers to sell 55k cars that wouldn't otherwise be sold comes out to approximately $20,000 per car. 

Keep that in mind as you drive your used car to work in the morning. Be sure to turn on the radio to listen to Madam speaker pat herself on the back for such a successful program, while on your way to earn the money that's going to pay for it.

I don't know about you, but I can't afford much more "success" from this Congress.