Cash for clunkers

Our Government at Work

It is good to see customer service is not dead. Our government has once again extended the deadline for the cash for clunkers program. Excellent. Except for the fact that they are not extending it for you. They are "extending" the program because they have been overwhelmed with demand from dealers that cannot get through for approval. No automated system, you have to wait for someone. Very efficient. Good to know our representatives think of the details. Currently the average wait time is 30 minutes, and dealers are recommended to call back if they are disconnected. It is good to know that our government cares about us. It is the handling of programs like these that gives us all confidence in the ability of the government to be responsible and responsive to what the people need. It is also good to know that they are using our money wisely. Remember the transparency thing? We spent 3 billion of your money so that someone could get a new car. While I am sure these individuals are very happy with the new car, did you enjoy paying for it? Yes, all tax money comes from your pockets, including the interest we are paying China to hold most of our debt. Congratulations, the 3 billion will be 3.9 billion, that is 3,900,000,000. It will be interesting to see how many cars were actually purchased for that money. If you take the 3 billion assume all 4,050 was used, 740,000 cars would have been purchased, but only 625,000 were actually purchased. Meaning that 115,000 cars were not funded due to overhead for the program. That means that over 20 percent of your money was used to make sure that when you bought someone a car the rules were followed.

Remember why the program is being "extended"? The money is still being spent, and more money will be required to shut the program down. The program is being extended to allow for dealers to call in and obtain approval when the whole system has been unavailable. Bet you won't hear about that as a lead in on CNN. These things are buried on page 6, and thus most people won't see them, and others will refuse to acknowledge what they mean. Examine the actual expenditures of our federal system sometime. Programs like Amtrak has never been profitable and we sink an average of 4 billion a year into the program. Our post office is an example of the fine customer service we can expect when the Cap and Trade bills go into effect and our healthcare is managed by the government. Talk to veterans who must receive healthcare from our VA system or the Bureau of Indian Affairs to see how happy they are about their care. Take off the rose colored glasses, ask hard questions like do I really need to help pay for someone else's car?