March 28, 2024

Cash For Clunkers?

obama press conference header

There’s trouble in paradise.  One of the ways that the government thought that it could help car dealers in the United States could be helped during this recession would be to encourage people to buy new cars by offering them a deal.  Not only that, but at the same time, they could get rid of cars that were older, harder to maintain, and had lower gas mileage. 1

The deal is pretty straightforward—the government offers a rebate for qualifying vehicles that they will take off the road and render inoperable towards the purchase of certain new automobiles.

Sounds pretty straightforward.

In practice, the number of vehicles that qualify is short, and, for the most part, they are encouraging Americans to go further into debt on newer vehicles.  Oh, and the government isn’t paying the rebates in a timely fashion.

Many dealers are no longer going to offer the rebates, and in NY, the Greater New York Automobile Dealership Association states that only 2% of deals have been reimbursed so far.

This isn’t the first time I’ve heard of trouble with reimbursements from the government.  My sister-in-law is a nurse in a NICU, and she says that many hospitals are having trouble not because of private insurance, but because of Medicaid/Medicare reimbursements.

Here are two different sets of private industry where the government intervened and those businesses are now in trouble and reliant on a government that isn’t paying.  And the government will take the blame should these businesses fold.

Whereas it is normal and natural for a business to change focus or die in the capitalist society, when the government gets involved and makes promises, we all take the on the responsibility of keeping business that may not be practical afloat.

This is definitely why we don’t want the government anywhere near our healthcare—or should I say, more than it is.  Because it will become the same thing.  The government will have trouble making payments, and hospitals and care centers will close—and the quality of care will drop.

But from what I read and hear in the mainstream media, I’m focusing too much on what could happen in the future and not enough on what Obama’s promising me right now.  Too bad he and the democrats rarely keep their promises.

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  1. And if you are a conspiracy theorist, they wanted to make sure that there were newer cars with newer computers on the road… []

2 thoughts on “Cash For Clunkers?

  1. I thought the “Cash for Clunkers” was a very bad idea and so glad I didn’t fall for it. Granted, I would love to have a brand-new vehicle but that just isn’t going to happen. I like the fact that all of our vehicles, are paid for.

    As for the health care plan, it needs to be burned into ashes. Not a good idea, a dangerous one in fact.
    .-= Leticia´s last blog ..Sunflower Serenade blog tour =-.

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