The Senate and House have passed, and Obama is expected to sign, a $1 billion “program” to help stimulate car sales.  The “program” will offer $4500 vouchers to trade in old, less efficient, cars for newer, more efficient, ones.  This is supposed to help the poor, the economy and the environment.  As always, the government thinks we are made of money.

Let’s assume I have an old clunker that get’s, say, 15 miles per gallon.  I could take my clunker down to the dealer, hand him my voucher, ask for trade money and get a loan for the remainder of the value of the new car.  Sounds great, huh?  Well, considering the fact that the government really wants these clunkers off the road, I can’t expect much for my trade.  Say I get $1000 for it.  Add that to my voucher and I’ve got a nice $5500 trade in value.  Apply that toward the over $20,000 cost of the new car or truck and I’m on the hook for $14,000 or more.

Now, I’m sure you could say, “Trade for a cheaper car.”  Ok, so I trade for a small car priced at $15,000.  I still need to come up with the funding of over $9000.  If I had that kind of money, I’d just buy a used small car.  I’m sure I could get it cheaper than $9000.  Not to mention that most who are in this kind of situation probably can’t get a loan in the current economic environment.

This is really only going to help rich folk who can’t unload their huge SUV in these days of high gas prices.  They’ll get that additional $4500, which will make up for the difference in what they paid for their vehicle and what they can get for it.  So, what we have is another really bad idea from the worst administration in our history.

He really is trying to kill America, isn’t he?