More of My Cash for Your Clunkers?

I'm back to writing on the politics that make me nauseated. This week the Senate has been preparing to vote on whether to donate $2,000,000,000 of taxpayers' hard earned money to the silly and expensive Cash for Clunkers program.

See, the point of this program is to give people who trade in an old gas guzzler, specifically SUVs, up to $4500 extra trade-in credit, funded by you and me. The trade-in credit is only good towards the purchase of a gas-friendly vehicle (the most popular of which, so far, have been Toyota, Honda, and Ford). The current program, apparently, has been a wild success, as they have pretty much run out of funds. Hence the vote to throw more money at it.

I have several problems with this whole Cash for Clunkers business. First and foremost, it's anti-Constitutional. Congress was never granted power to utilize taxpayer funds to stimulate private businesses. Or to encourage environmental cleanliness. They were never given the power to tax citizens either, but that's whole different ball of wax.

Second, the g-men are regulating what kinds of cars you can buy with your cool $4500 taxpayer funded stimulus. Only cars that get good MPG qualify, so if you're in the market for an SUV, you're out of luck. Also, you can't apply that to used cars of any type, including gas-sippers, so folks not looking to drop new car money are also SOL. I have never liked the idea of the gov'ment picking and choosing what I can and can't buy. Also, the government specifies what kinds of cars you can trade in. Are you looking to trade in your old Honda Civic to get a sexy new Camaro? Tough cookies for you, you get no Cash for Clunkers cash. Even if your old Civic is 20 years old. "Clunkers" is really defined as Trucks, SUVs, and Vans.

Finally, I bought a new car (a Civic as it happens) 3 years ago. Brand-spankin' new. And you want to know what? I never asked taxpayers to help me fund that purchase. So that begs the questions, then, why does my tax moey go to help somebody else buy a new car?

Besides all the above reasons, here's another good one for why the Senate should not pass a bill to dump more money into this program. A group of about 50 of the largest dealers in the nation have come together and put their own credit in place, titled the Automotive Stimulus Package. This new (and more awesome than the government's) package allows trade-in customers to get from $500 - $4500 in extra trade-in credit and has the following requirements

• The vehicle must be owned, registered, and insured for at least 6 months
• The vehicle must be model year 2006 or earlier
• The vehicle must be in working condition
• The vehicle must be at least 2mpg less efficient than the car you wish to purchase

PLUS, it covers buyers who are in the market for a used car.

This, folks, is the market in action. The government doesn't need to do anything, the private sector is taking care of itself (and doing a better job of it than the g-men, no less). Time for the government to get the hell out... long past time, actually, this is more of a wink, wink, nudge, nudge.

Of course, we have a Congress that likes to be seen as helpful. They think this is helpful, so expect the bill to pass through the Senate and another $2 billion dollars of our money to get flushed.