CASH FOR CLUNKERS? THE ONLY CLUNKER IS THE BILL ITSELF.

What a concept! "CASH FOR CLUNKERS"...on the surface, this looks like a pretty good deal, but we really have to stop and think about the plan.

Officially Called the Consumer Assistance Recycle and Save Act of 2009, or as we've come to know it, “Cash for Clunkers,” the program will cost the tax-payers $1 billion and will provide a voucher of up to $4,500 to help offset the cost of new car purchases or leases over the next five months.

The purchaser will present the voucher to the dealer who will in turn receive an electronic payment from the feds(actually, from us). This program will apply to cars purchased or leased between July 1st and November 1st of this year.
There are, of course, some stipulations as to what kind of mileage the new car gets; in order to qualify, the "clunker" has to have a fuel economy rating of no more than 18 MPG (combined city and highway ratings), and the new car has to have a fuel efficiency rating of at least 22 MPG (18 MPG for pickups and SUV's) and get at least 4 MPG more than the "clunker".

That's not that much of an improvement, considering the 35.5 MPG CAFE Standard just passed, and with such a slight MPG improvement requirement, are we really accomplishing anything?

Sure we are! But it has nothing to do with the environment. It will help the auto manufacturers get people into the new Obamamobiles (you know, the expensive death traps we've discussed before).

It will also do one other thing: it will adversely affect the economy. Now you may ask "how will it do that?".
Remember when the feds said everybody deserved the "American Dream" and forced lenders to make sub-prime mortgage loans to people who couldn't afford to make the payments?

Well, we are about to create a sub-prime auto loan environment. Now with a $3500- $4500 voucher in hand, consumers are going to go out and buy cars they can't afford to pay for.

Think about it. Why do people drive "clunkers" in the first place? The answer to that is really quite simple: THEY CAN'T AFFORD A NEW CAR!

We are about to see car repo's on the same scale we are seeing home foreclosures because Obama claims this new fiasco will clean-up the environment and conserve fuel.

A person with a modicum of intelligence or common sense can figure out that it will do very little to accomplish either of those things.
So as it turns out, this is just another "Obamanation".