Government To Suspend 'Cash For Clunkers'

by Staff - July 30th, 2009 - Associated Press

The government plans to suspend its popular "cash for clunkers" program amid concerns it could quickly use up the $1 billion in rebates for new car purchases, congressional officials said Thursday.

[Snip]

A survey of 2,000 dealers by the National Automobile Dealers Association found about 25,000 deals had not yet been approved by NHTSA, or nearly 13 trades per store. It raised concerns that with about 23,000 dealers taking part in the program, auto dealers may already have surpassed the 250,000 vehicle sales funded by the $1 billion program.

Bureaucrats! A program that is supposed to "approve" 250,000 sales is incapable of handling 25,000 sales, a fraction of the sales expected. They are swamped after 10% of the sales are submitted. So the program is suspended while government bureaucrats figure out how to overcome their incompetent planning for the program. This is not just an example of how stupid and incompetent President Barack Obama is. This is a perfect example of just how stupid and incompetent most government officials are. They call it the rule of unintended consequences. Doesn't this frighten anyone who contemplates letting Obama set up a bureaucracy to approve your health care decisions?


Update - August 1st, 2009 - A group of dealers are setting up their own "Cash for Clunkers" program not based on the government. The major differences are the engines in the trade-ins do not have to be destroyed and the "clunker" can be traded in for a used car. The most important issue is that it provides as much if not greater environmental advantage as the dim-witted government program.