Stand Up Notes From Flyover Country: CARS Program Previews Obamacare
by Jeffrey JenaI do a line in my act that’s often copied about how if you want the government to run health care you need to spend a little more time at the DMV. However the Obama administration has given us a new benchmark in government ineptness. If you’re looking forward to the government running our health care system perhaps you should look over at the CARS program. If you think that a quickly cranked out complex government program is what’s best for the economy or health care check out the so called Cash for Clunkers debacle.
The idea was simple, offer an incentive to get people out of gas guzzlers and help boost lagging car sales. I don’t know why the auto industry was chosen for a big corporate welfare handout instead of the furniture or big screen TV folks. It may have something to do with the government owning a big hunk of the auto industry and therefore being on the hook for future pension and health care costs. Which, if I may offer a quick civics lesson review, means that you and I are now the proud owners of the Old GM obligations.
To get back to my point, if there’s anything hated by lawyers and government bureaucrats alike, it is simplicity. I could write the rules for the program in several paragraphs but then the average consumer and auto dealer would be able to understand them and several thousand government hacks would have nothing to do. The regulations covering the program run over 140 pages! Over one hundred and forty pages on what cars are eligible for trade and purchase.
There were warning signs that this was going to be a typical government balls up. At the end of the first week of July I went to several dealerships to check out what the deal was with cashing in on welfare for the United Auto Worker. No one had a clue and the program was scheduled to start in less than two weeks. Once the program got underway the EPA started “reevaluating” the gas mileage of a number of vehicles, making some cars that had been turned in no longer eligible!
Since then the government has been rejecting hundreds of application which seem to be valid. The government has no idea how many cars have been purchased under this program. The backlog of rebates after only five days is so enormous that no one knows how much has been spent, how many cars have been purchased or if there’s any money left.
Lack of money has never been a problem that the Federal Government couldn’t overcome. The House voted to triple the amount of money for the CARS program. Why triple? Why not, that seems like a good number. There is, of course, no logic or mathematics behind the increase. Like many government numbers it was pulled from the air like a bunch of flowers in a magician’s trick.
You don’t want to look at the logic behind the whole program too deeply either. If this idea is a way to jump-start the auto business, why didn’t we just take the 150 plus billion we have already poured into GM and Chrysler and have a mega CARS program where we offered 10 grand to the first 1.5 million folks who wanted to buy a new car? If the idea was to reduce carbon emissions and gas usage, please don’t do the math as to how little be saved by getting 250,000 people to get 5 or 6 MPG more while driving.
So think about the President saying his health care plan will be cost neutral while you are down at the DMV registering your CARS car and hoping your voucher processes properly so you aren’t on the hook for the $4500 you were promised.
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[...] Read more: Stand Up Notes From Flyover Country: CARS Program Previews Obamacare [...]
everything the USG touches turns into goes south…….
The current Government debt load for each U.S. household is at $55,000, what's another $4,500
[...] the original here: Stand Up Notes From Flyover Country: CARS Program Previews Obamacare This entry is filed under America – Blogs, Big Hollywood. You can follow any responses to this [...]
This "clunker" program is a joke, but only a drop in the bucket compared to what's coming. I've heard all the polls about how "nobody wants the healthcare plan", but I'm afraid. Obama and his machine will stop at NOTHING to get this passed. NOTHING. Please be vigilant about contacting everybody you can to stop this madness.
Let's see…the price for an 'approved' car is let's say for arguement, $19,000. Subtract the maximum allowable of $4500 . That means I have to pony up $14,500. Of course, I didn't include taxes, title etc. This means I'd have to get a loan out for the balance. If my credit isn't A++, what lender will be willing to shell out this money? The automobile company's credit department stays away from less than stellar credit risks. What's more, the dealer won't give me a trade-in credit on my car as they are required to destroy it. But now, the Senate will give another $2 billion in taxpayer funds without seeing how 'successful' this program is. Who bought them, and how were they paid for at what interest rates, and how much did the dealerships actually make on the deals?
Someone pointed out that most people in the middle and higher classes likely don't have cars that are tradeable under this program meaning that many of the cars traded in will likely be to people who are going to have a lot of trouble paying for a new car. When they can't keep up their payments, they can't get back their old cars which they could afford, and there is now a shortage of used cars sitting around meaning that the prices for the remaining used cars will be elevated.____Not only that, but this does nothing to grow the economy. We're destroying assets in the form of working older cars.
[...] 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 [...]
[...] program right, why should they be trusted with your healthcare? Jeffrey Jena, Big Hollywood: Stand Up Notes From Flyover Country: CARS Program Previews Obamacare Wall Street Journal: More Cash for Clunkers? Frugal Café Blog Zone: Glenn Beck Warns [...]
[...] junk heap? Update: House adds $2 billion more to re-start the program Jeffrey Jena, Big Hollywood: Stand Up Notes From Flyover Country: CARS Program Previews Obamacare Carpe Diem: Cash for Clunkers: 136 Pages of Rules and Regs; How Many Pages for Government Health [...]
[...] for Exposing Obama’s Goal to Eliminate Private Health Insurance Jeffrey Jena, Big Hollywood: Stand Up Notes From Flyover Country: CARS Program Previews Obamacare The Sundries Shack: Live Free or Don’t. Whatever. Jonah Goldberg, National Review Online: Empathy [...]
you are dead right-
Most of the folk who are driving these so-called 'clunkers' couldn't qualify for new car financing anyway. So, as we said earlier it's a mad dash 'mooch' market by people who smell a gift and they are mostly buying imports.
A Charlie Foxtrot- as we used to call them…
I can see into the future. And I see more lawsuits by trial lawyers than any other program that this country has ever faced. If you thought tobacco industry settlements were large wait until you see these. Buyers suing Dealers, Dealers suing the Government. Tax payers paying the bill. And many cars being repoed. At least when health care is passed and Grandma and Grandpa is crushed you will not be able to sue the government because they will be exempt. Not in the case for cars because the government entered into the contract.
Brilliant! It's about time we harnessed the economic power of vandalism. In fact, let's award $50,000 to every owner of an energy inefficient old house for trading up, and then we can burn the old ones to the ground. Or we could pay out $1000 for every smashed window. The window owner and window smasher can split the cash 50/50. Think of all the jobs it will create, as the smashed window owners reinvest in shiny new windows, and the window smashers in new high-efficiency bricks. Soon the American window and brick industries will be back on their feet, humming along at peak efficiency. With the magical magic of free government cash, will soon be destroying our way back to prosperity!
Another example of an Obama administration program rushed through to meet a "chrisis' which winds up hurting the very people it intended to help. Has the program helped GM or Chrysler? Hardly, if at all. Meanwhile, people who need a cheap form of transportation – the junior college student working his way through school, the elderly woman who needs something to get her to the store and to her doctor, the single mother who needs to drop her kids off at daycare on her way to work – are denied the opportunity to buy cheap, serviceable vehicles because they don't get the government-approved level of gas mileage. All you folks who voted for Obama just got boned again.
Absolutely not…and I made a decent living in the car biz for several years…getting reimbursed for rebate programs from the manufacturer used to be a nightmare…now take *creative* car guys and dangle $4500 FREE $$$$ at them? For a $500 shooter? After a few years of crappy car sales years…fraud and abuse? What? Moi?….unbelieveable….
Wait till the deal is no health care for clunkers, those of us (baby boomers) with health problems or elderly parents with such problems. As we approach our expiration dates we will naturally have more health problems. Most of us will be retired and as such will be considered to be non productive assats by the health care advisory boards. Our expensive healthcare will be ended when we reach the current average life expectancy. For the greater good, the costs to keep us upright will not be approved. As a bonus the government gets the death tax on our estates. Oh to be young and healthy. Perhaps this is just as we baby boomers have been such poor stewards of our country. Take care of yourself so that you can rnjoy the time that you have left.
If possible the dealer will start at STICKER and subtract the $4500. If there's a rebate they'll subtract that. So let's say the rebate is $2000 just for conversation…that $19000 minus $4500= $14,500..minus the rebate, $2000= $12,500…that's a good equity position for just about any bank if you have even decent credit, they should buy the deal on equity position alone. Now the dealer invoice minus "holdback" might make "cost" on that $19,000 car let's say $16,800. They make the "cost" price, plus holdback plus the rebate plus the "clunker money". In reality you just bought the car for sticker. So, let's say cost is about $16,000, plus $2000, plus $4500. That's $22,500…not bad huh?
If possible the dealer will start at STICKER and subtract the $4500. If there's a rebate they'll subtract that. So let's say the rebate is $2000 just for conversation…that $19000 minus $4500= $14,500..minus the rebate, $2000= $12,500…that's a good equity position for just about any bank if you have even decent credit, they should buy the deal on equity position alone. Now the dealer invoice with "dealer holdback" might make "cost" on that $19,000 car let's say $16,800. They make the "cost" price, plus holdback plus the rebate plus the "clunker money". In reality you just bought the car for sticker. So, let's say cost is about $16,000, plus $2000, plus $4500. That's $22,500…not bad huh?
And you thought Obama only studied radical leftist "constitutional" law and African American studies at Haaavard…I nominate you to replace the snoozing Larry "Sleepy" "Girls can't do math" Summers…
And you thought Obama only studied radical leftist "constitutional" law and African American studies at Haaavard…I nominate you to replace the snoozing Larry "Sleepy" "Girls can't do math" Summers…Vandalism Czar…
Absolutely true, I sold cars for many years and not everybody wants or NEEDS a new car…I've had ONE in my entire life…and I've had a bunch of cars…I didn't need the big payments…lots of good solid seven and eight year old cars are going to be destroyed for NO GOOD REASON…this is liberal lunacy…
Youv'e got that right. Barry has already said the way to reduce health costs and pay for his socialized health care plan is use a cost/benefit formula to decide who gets health care. Like the plan in Canada? There your "expiration date" for medical procedures is 72. Have something life-threating at 72 or older? Tuff sh!t, 'cause your going to die – your no longer worth treating. But hey, Barry has that figured out too – that's why he put money in his bill for "end of life counsling", which is what you'll get instead of Dr.
And you thought Obama only studied radical leftist "constitutional" law and African American studies at Haaavard…I nominate you to replace the snoozing Larry "Sleepy"&"Girls can't do math" Summers…Vandalism Czar…
Youv'e got that right. Barry has already said the way to reduce health costs and pay for his socialized health care plan is use a cost/benefit formula to decide who gets health care. Like the plan in Canada? There your "expiration date" for medical procedures is 72. Have something life-threating at 72 or older? Tuff sh!t, 'cause your going to die – your no longer worth treating. But hey, Barry has that figured out too – that's why he put money in his bill for "end of life counsling", which is what you'll get instead of access to a Dr.
No, we figured that out a few days ago…O.J. is going to be released from a Nevada prison and start his new *job* as Obama's head "end of life councelor"…puts a New Black Panther to work and fills a vital postion, done.
It'll be a new program called "Gas the Human Clunkers"…
It'll be a new program called "Gas the Human Clunkers"…they'll do it by political party affiliation…GOP first, naturally…
Didn't somebody already try that one. . . in Germany I think. Maybe in Russia. Or was it China?
Your are correct: Walter Rauff-Nazi War Criminal
"In 1941-1942 Rauff was involved in the development of gas vans, mobile gas chambers used to fatally poison Jews, persons with disabilities, communists, etc., who were considered by the SS as enemies of the German State. According to declassified C.I.A. documents:
"As an official of the Criminal Technical Institute of the Reich Security Main Office, Rauff designed gas vans used to murder Jews and persons with disabilities." [4]
an animal, a complete total animal…and he died of natural causes in Chile..age 77..he's burning in Hell now…
In Soviet Russia it was the work/starve/freeze combo to *relieve* the country of unwanted *citizenry*…Stalin, a real Prince amongst men…
Yup, the old Broken Windows Fallacy that Bastiat demolished over a cenmtury ago.
Only by LibDem standards could a program be called a "success" for going broke in a week, shutting down over its own red tape, and costing three times as much as advertised.
I was told there would be no math at this internet message board.
Here's how I explain cash for clunkers to people.
Go to the store. Use your own money, buy a 12 pack. Take it home and throw half of it away. Write the government a check for $100 and mail it to Washington. Get back a check for $4. Go back to the store, buy another 6 pack, take it back home.
Then write an essay explaining how better off financially you now are.
Have the Chinese lend us the money to fund a program enriching Japanese car companies.
Fly the former president to North Korea to pay the ransom for two of Al Gore's employees that were sent into the country and got caught, while assuring that the Chinese get cover from the North Koreans threatening to send a couple million more refugees across the border.
Get the media to sing the praises of a program that takes affordable cars away from the poor who need them to look for new jobs while they bury the real unemployment numbers of probably 15% nationwide.
Call the people that protest unAmerican and greedy while approving the purchase of 70 million dollar private luxury jets for the congressmen who agree to keep their eyes shut while they sign bills.
We are pioneering new avenues of crazy.
Being liberal means never having to comprehend the Law of Unintended Consequences.
Now you’re putting that noggin to work Iowahawk, and you give a fine description of Obamanomics …I now understand Joe Biden, …thanks Iowahawk : )
Jeffery you mix the government into most anything and you achieve the ultimate cluster f#*k. Brain dead leftist myrmidons have no clue about business or cost of things these are other peoples problems and now they’re indignant screaming more, more, more. After all Barry did promise “bread and circuses” so far all we’ve gotten are circuses. Clash for Clunkers is just the latest example of slimy Washington politicians, …give’em hell America.
Dear Hawk
Thanks for reading, I hope I don't seem too gushy but I am a huge fan of your website! You recent application for a federal comedy grant was Hill-air-e us! From a big hillbilly to an Iowa Jayhawk keep up the satire!
Jeff Jena
"Cash For Clunkers"……………wheeeeeee………..Just heard that the $4500 per car that you get in this program costs the Government $45,000 per car………….for the extra 20,000 cars turned in.
ANOTHER GOVERNMENT PROGRAM THAT SAVES THE TAXPAYER MONEY.
Funny, I thought Cash for Clunkers was the original name of the bailout…
Funny, I thought "Cash for Clunkers" was the original name of the Stimulus Package…
Woah, woah, woah… Jayhawks are Kansas. Hawkeyes are Iowa.
You say "Like many government numbers it was pulled from the air like a bunch of flowers in a magician’s trick."
I suspect it was instead pulled out of Barney Frank's a$$. A whole lotta things have gone up there…
that this has any constituency at all speaks to the more base nature amongst us…
passionate and GREAT…logic is not required by those who wish to CONTROL!
Like any multi-million $$$ business there's tremendous pressure put on the management to produce…after sucking air for a while these guys are going to be like pent up animals…I can see the wheels in their heads turning now. To make things worse around here I'm a few miles from the Mexican border. Where do think the nicer "clunkers" are going to go? And at a nice profit to boot…I'm not sure what the verification program is, but you can but these needle d!cks in the "Ojoker Train Wreck/Administration didn't *think it out*!
I can see the headline about a year after Obamacare is implemented (God forbid it should ever pass):
"Government health plan on life support"
Just one year after the government's public health care reform was instituted, the White House has announced the program is in dire need of a cash infusion if it is to continue. "Clearly this popular program has worked," White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said during a press conference. "It's worked better than we could have ever imagined, actually. We budgeted $1 trillion dollars over ten years, but according the the third quarter numbers and projected fourth quarter numbers, the program will run out of money a month before the fiscal year ends in September. With that in mind, we're asking Congress to find another $5 trillion dollars in order to make sure this program remains functional and we keep the 'useful idiot ' demographic's vote locked up for the 2012 election."
ya signed up for the wrong website…you can "place out" of the prerequisites if you like…
ask the *Fannie Mae* executive/dinner date/rump ranger
well, we're supposed to 'kill' these cars…
Can you imagine that? Kill a car? For what reason? Just because it gets 18mpg instead of 22?
Poor sodium silicate down the crankcase (one Lexus LS$00 they couldn't kill after repeated tries, heh heh)… Bad stuff, friend.
First, the government rewards banks and auto companies that fail.
Then, we reward citizens who took out mortgages that they could not afford.
Now, we are rewarding citizens who drive crappy cars.
Man, I am doing it all wrong.
Oh, it will pass – Obiwan has even said that of it doesn't pass via votes in Congress, he will push it through anyway via executive order and some sketchy statues, Chicago-style. Change we can believe in….
I love cars, always have…the idea of destroying a perfectly good car just because it doesn't *measure up* to this idiotic Administrations "standards" is stupid. Making the rest of us pay for it is an outrage. If an older car or pickup, especially an old pickup is safe, it's major components are good and it's emissions are legal then it's just plain lunacy to "kill them". An idiot Democrat (redundant?) Congressman floated the idea of removing ALL old cars from the private sector a few years back, it was a stupid idea that went nowhere; in our family alone we have a '41 Lincoln Continental, a '61 Jaguar, a '71 Mercedes, a '63 Riviera and an old Suburban…screw Obama and his thugs.
"I was toad dere would be no HULK weferences here." – Lou Ferrigno at a neighborhood poker game in THE KING OF QUEENS.
nice fleet there, guy…
41 Continental!- Muy Sweeto!… we had a '65 Riv in the family once upon a time. Yeah, killing cars that would best be used by his own proletariat makes little sense- unless you subscribe to a much darker vision…
and we're starting to.
Thanks, none are mine! My Dad bought the Continental in the early 50's when he was a young Air Force officer…he, with us in the back, actually drove it from Seattle to just South of Chicago and another time from Chicago to Texas,in the summer, no a/c..it was a blast, rides like a cloud…the Riv is my brother's.
dad's got a sense of style. give him our best!
Done, and thanks! He's a *car guy*…
Here's a related parody:" Billions of Dollars to Be Burned Under New 'Cash for Cash' Program": http://optoons.blogspot.com/2009/08/billions-of-d...
Sorry Crazy,
Did I mention I am a big hillbilly? We don't get out much!
this program really stinks…____One of the things we do is buy and sell autos. This program does several things, none of them well. One, it takes perfectly good transportation off the road- the type most affordable to struggling families- Barry's 'target' audience- and Two, it takes taxpayer dollars to pay $3500-4500 for cars worth Fifty bucks- a scam- that the 'mooch' market loves. Many don't care what it is they buy, as long as someone- us – gives them 100 times the value of their beast.____And Third, it has created a bureaucratic nightmare where dealers have staff working 24/7 to submit forms to overwhelmed sites that have a high rejection rate and it takes 10 days to re-submit…____Then there are the dealers who have a million dollars coming to them when, and if, the Government approves and/or makes extra funds available. Giving up an 18mpg FWD van for a 22mpg Acura TSX nets the environment__nothing-____But helps deplete the oversupply of TSX's. Which,of course are made in Japan…
Does this make sense to anybody?
Can we add some pyramid building schemes also? I think I read somewhere that Keynesians believe pyramid construction could help get us out of recession.
[...] what’s best for the economy or health care check out the so called Cash for Clunkers debacle. Read more Categories: Politics Tags: CARS, Health Care Comments (0) Trackbacks (0) Leave a comment [...]
I got really excited over the "Cash for Clunkers" program….until I realized that it is *not* a method of replacing the current Congress.
I was disappointed to find out that it is just another automotive bailout. And a part of me wonders, in these economic times, why are we encouraging taxpayers to incur more indebtedness? And why are my tax dollars buying new cars for people?
Socialism in general is *such* a bad idea. The stupidity on the left is even worse. Unfortunately, inefficiency scales really well.
When I glanced at the title briefly and saw the brightly painted cars my mind conjured up something called Pixar's "Cars for Clunkers" the sequel to the original cartoon where Larry the Cable guy is junked for a cash pay off and the more politically correct Janeane Garafolo. I hope it never gets made.
If possible the dealer will start at STICKER and subtract the $4500. If there's a rebate they'll subtract that. So let's say the rebate is $2000 just for conversation…that $19000 minus $4500= $14,500..minus the rebate, $2000= $12,500…that's a good equity position for just about any bank if you have even decent credit, they should buy the deal on equity position alone. Now the dealer invoice with "dealer holdback" might make "cost" on that $19,000 car let's say $16,800. They make the "cost" price, including the holdback plus the rebate plus the "clunker money". In reality you just bought the car for sticker. So, let's say cost is about $16,000, plus $2000, plus $4500. That's $22,500…not bad huh? and then they're not even buying Government Motors cars!
[...] Stand Up Notes From Flyover Country: CARS Program Previews Obamacare by Jeffrey Jena [...]
Eh, no big deal. I don't really follow sports, just enough to know what I told your earlier. Here's a freebie though: Idaho is where the potatos are from; we've got the corn and soybeans here in Iowa. People get that mixed up all the time for some reason.
…"destroying our way back to prosperity." Bullseye, hilarious insight. I'd laugh harder, if this wasn't so freakin' sad.
And the ironic thing about this CARS program (seeing that it was supposed to benefit GM and Chrysler) is that the top five cars being bought under this program are FORDS, HONDAS, and TOYOTAS!!! Brilliant plan there! Not only is it not bailing out the auto makers that we now own, it's adding to the national debt in spades: the money for the program itself, and the negative money the car dealerships have in contract limbo (cuz ya know no one paid cash for these cars) some of which they might never see because–hey you know. In Obama's world everything's free and his attempt at "saving jobs" has netted him a 9.5% unemployment rate so who knows how long some of these people will be able to make the payments. Nice going! With this kind of logic, let's nuke the whales so we can save them!
Doesn't junking all those cars add to the amount of garbage in landfills that the ecos keep complaining about? Also, those junked cars–couldn't they have gone to the poor who might have needed a car to "find" a job?
At the end of the day, we are going to find out that BIG Business was again the unintended benefactor of this poorly devised scheme. I have no doubt that big fleets were cashing in their old cars, getting $4,500 a piece and either pocketing the cash or putting that toward new vehicles.
Nothing this administration does seems to work. Please, is it 2012 yet? *sigh*
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