Yet another massive failure of the Obama Administration and its “Hip-pocket Congress”. Consider the following.
From the above referenced AP article, the following numbers:
Through late Wednesday, 22,782 vehicles had been purchased through the program and nearly $96 million had been spent. But dealers raised concerns about large backlogs in the processing of the deals in the government system, prompting talk of a possible suspension.
Note that the number of completed vehicle purchases at this point are 22,782 which, with some qualifying for the $3,500 and some for the full $4,500 came to a total of some $96 million or nearly 10% of the allotted billion dollars. At this rate, only some 225,000 vehicles could be purchased under the program’s $1 billion funding.
Let’s follow some more numbers. Complete transparency, right?
According to RITA (Research and Innovative Technology Administration), using 2006 stats (the latest complete stats available) there are in the US:
Automobiles registered: 135.4 million
Light trucks registered: 99.1 million
That’s a total of 234.5 million vehicles in this country. Under the best of circumstances, this program, as currently funded, would only replace about 1/10th of 1% of the vehicles on the road.
While this program may help the dealers sell cars (and people buy them), that’s a ridiculous waste of resources as far as cleaning the environment is concerned. And that was the positive part of the program! Now consider the remaining factors:
The Negatives
One tenth of one percent (.001%) of the vehicles on the road in this country doesn’t even qualify as a drop in the bucket in terms of replacing gas guzzlers with fuel-efficient vehicles. While the Obama administration may want to tout that benefit, it’s all for show with little or no substance. Yet there are negatives that far outweigh the few positive factors here:
The program requires that the trade-ins be destroyed. Why? Perfectly good used auto parts that could be re-used during repairs of similar cars is a whole lot more “green friendly” than having to manufacture more new parts which uses more energy (and spew more pollutants into the air in the process). Meanwhile, there will be fewer used car parts available for those of us who don’t qualify for a new car and need to continue repairing our existing ones, or would actually like to trade up to a better clunker.
Then there’s the cost of delivery of those new replacement parts. Tsk Tsk. More energy used.
Now let’s consider the amount of energy necessary to safely and ecologically destroy these hundreds of thousands of clunkers. And the pollution involved with that.
Based on local news reports, the majority of the new vehicles being sold thus far are Hondas, Toyotas, and other foreign brands, as those have a larger array of fuel-efficient vehicles. This means the majority of this money for this program is not even going to be kept in our own economy, but will ultimately wind up overseas.
Clever huh? Just another way Obama is using his magnificent community organizer skills to steer our economy over a cliff, which begs the question, “Is this intentional?” But that’s another rant for another time.
All of this to replace one tenth of one percent of the vehicles on the road. This is what happens when you have a Congress run by power-hungry morons in support of a President who has never even run so much as a lemonade stand, yet is now in charge of our national economy.
Be afraid, folks. Be very afraid.
Gerry Ashley
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