Too Many Clunkers, Not Enough Cash

Wait, people will show up in droves when you are handing out cash? Why who could have seen that coming?

The White House said Friday its wildly successful cash for clunkers program will continue over the weekend and the administration is working feverishly with Congress to get more money to extent the program.

...The House, which was set to leave Washington at the end of the day for a month-long recess, was trying to reach agreement on emergency legislation to increase the program's cash supply from its original $1 billion. There is speculation the amount could be doubled or tripled.

...News broke late Thursday that the program, which began only last week and had been scheduled to run through Nov. 1, might have already exhausted its resources.

The National Automobile Dealers Association said its survey of 2,000 dealers showed that about 25,000 deals had yet to be approved by the government, raising fears that the 250,000 vehicle sales slated to be funded through the program had already been surpassed.

Once again the Obama administration shows it awesome grasp of economics and ability to predict the results of their policies. We should definitely trust everything they say about health care costs.

BTW-For those interested, here's a take down of the program from a free market perspective. It's pretty obvious stuff, unless of course you are a leftist and happen to be President of the United States.

A taste:

There’s a distinct difference between a successful government program and a good government program. In effect, Cash for clunkers is a classic lesson in Economics 101: What Not to Do. It’s sadly reminiscent of Frederic Bastiat’s broken window fallacy, except that instead of breaking windows to “stimulate the economy”, we’re destroying perfectly good cars. Meanwhile, we’re asking consumers to purchase cars they might not be able to afford and incur more debt. While the program is ‘working’ in the sense that people are buying new cars, not only has the government had trouble dispersing the money, the program is full of unintended consequences including dubious environmental benefits.

Here's my modest proposal, forget the proposed law that candidates for President have to show a birth certificate, make them take a freshmen level test in basic economics. If they can't pass that, they aren't eligible to be President.

posted by DrewM. at 12:12 PM

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