Talk About A Clunker

It's amazing, really, to watch the government in action. Amazing in a bad way, that is.

Instead of stimulating loads of new spending and benefiting the American auto industry, it simply created artificial churn in the marketplace. It started late, wasted money, only incented people to spend money earlier than they would have normally (rather than stimulate new spending), and is stiffing dealers. It's driving up prices on both cars and parts. It's hammering charities. It's hammering mechanics. Taxpayers pay $6000 to give other people -- including illegal aliens -- a $4500 gift. It boosted Japanese and South Korean car makers more than any American ones. It's an administrative nightmare that has managed to process only 2% of the submissions from dealerships around the country.

It almost seems like the clunkers program is a thinly veiled attempt to pick apart what's left of the free market auto industry.

Hmmm...

And this is the same government to whom we're supposed to hand over our health care?! Can't imagine why anyone doesn't like that idea...

There's my two cents.