The “cash for clunkers” program is simply crazy. It’s spending billions of taxpayer dollars to encourage people to give up perfectly serviceable cars, and then to destroy them. That’s right, the government is spending our money to destroy capital. It’s also (as Scrivener points out) putting the squeeze on lower-income Americans by reducing the stock of used cars.
The program is a big success, in the sense that it blew through its first billion within days. I have an idea for another “successful” government plan: dropping thousand-dollar bills from helicopters. (Start in Pittsburgh, please.)
We’re told that the program is popular, which it is, among those who are able to take advantage of it. (My program would also be popular among those standing beneath the helicopter.) But is the program popular with the general public?
No. In a shocking development, a Rasmussen poll found that the public is against throwing taxpayer money away. (Via the Corner.) The program is opposed by 54% and supported by just 35%.
There’s no way of knowing what, if anything, the program is actually accomplishing, because the Obama administration is refusing to release its records on the program. (Via the Corner.) Nevertheless, the administration has successfully rushed Congress to inject $2 billion more. You don’t have to be very cynical to infer that the president wanted the bill passed before the data became public.
We used to have to rely on wear-and-tear and natural disasters to destroy our capital, but no longer. What geniuses we are!
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