Purported to be the party of the worker, the current crop of Democrats are putting the screws to the worker and getting away with it by slight of hand and Republican stupidity.
One simple example, cash for clunkers. Who buys used clunkers and parts from used clunkers to keep their clunkers going? Sure isn’t the country club set. Even $4,500 won’t help the worker buy a new car since they can’t make the payments. So, this program takes a whole batch of clunkers off the road permanently since they will be made into a smashed cube. I’m a Lexus guy. I have a Lexus with 80,000 miles. I can trade this for a Lexus Hybrid and get $4,500 since it meets the qualifications. But, if I choose to do that it takes a very usable car off the road and I can’t get a trade in or sell the car. Your car has to be worth less than $ 4,500 to make this work. How many people who are driving a car worth less than $4,500 can afford a new car even with the spiff? Probably a good number, those who couldn’t afford a home mortgage but maybe got one anyway. As desperate as the car companies are today, they will take the $4,500 and repossess the car when the new owner stops making payments. Or, if your finance company, GMAC, which you now own, makes a loan and the buyer can’t pay, you will get to help the buyer pay just like you are doing for your neighbor who can’t pay his mortgage.
How can I make this deal work for me and a working man who can’t afford a new car? I can’t. There is a provision that you have to own the car and have it insured for a year. Otherwise, I could trade my car to a working man who has a clunker, trade the clunker for the Hybrid and split the spiff with the guy I traded. That would be a win win, but no such luck with Uncle Sam and Aunt Nancy.
The Wall Street Journal equated this idea to having people burn their houses down to fix the housing problem
Here’s a ready made opportunity for some Republican leader to step up and say when all the low-priced cars are off the market and the parts to fix them, where does a poor working stiff buy a car? Wait, there are no Republican leaders and if there were the only place you could hear them talk about this is on Fox News.
That’s what keeps me blogging away.