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| Cash for Clunkers was intended as diversion from Healthcare debate | |
| 2009-08-07 | |
War funding bill On the Congressional record of the bill, piggy-backed on the war-funding bill. Passed the House June 18th after heated negotiations with Democrats opposed to the war funds (lots of feely-good funding tacked on as well). Cash for clunkers Passed by Senate June 18th, signed into law on June 25th. I think this may be among the top 5 for speed of passage after a hand-off from Congress. Quick presidential signing Bama signs the War Funding bill into law June 26 (did he read it?). So much for 5-days-public-viewing. Timing slipped The program was supposed to be enacted almost a month earlier than the July 22 launch. It appears to me that, while the Chicagoan politicians in DC try to exert control over everything that comes out of the White House, this time they were unable to control the time line and their little diversion came out too late. I believe they intended to divert the public with media attention on a very lucrative program and INTENDED it to be underfunded. Come on -- how could anyone not estimate that there might be 200,000 willing to take advantage of what amounted to (in a lot of cases) a greater-than 100% gain on the value of their trade-in? Funding it with anything less than $1 billion would have been too obvious. The conflicting media accounts of an unfunded debacle to the Democrats trumpeting success make this a classic obfuscation. But obfuscation to what? Move this past week over the week of the most intense health care debate and it all makes sense. Postulate the adjusted time line -- adjust all the hype coming from both the media and the Dems to the week during which the most heated debates were occurring about health care. Back to reality: The delay deflated their balloon. A week after launching CARS, all hype about the program is lost and all the attention in the previous weeks went unwanted on health care. They intended to have a vote on both versions of the health care reform prior to the August recess, which was scheduled for August 3rd (?), meaning the vote most certainly would have occurred the Friday previous (given their history of that practice), or at the latest July 31st. The cash-for-clunkers program was intended to go into full-swing by July 1st, not July 22nd (as it transpired). Ostensibly, the NHTSA is the party responsible for the delay. Complex Washington politics, too many players, too little time. Bama's Chicago thugs learned a valuable lesson about DC bureaucracy and got a lot of unwanted attention on the health care debate, leading to MUCH public attention and outrage and, consequently, a delay in the vote. And, as I've asserted, the Republicans missed a huge opportunity to trash the economic policies of this administration by using the success of nearly putting $$ back into the pockets of working Americans. Imagine had actual tax cuts been afforded to all of us. This could have been a huge publicity coup for conservative opposition. But in the end bureaucracy reigned and gave the health care debate some much-needed attention. I, for one, never thought I would ever thank god for government bureaucracy. My .02. | |
| Posted by:logi_cal |
| #6 IMHO, sure towards the end it was when everything was flailing. As a gateway drug for people who don't think government can help them, little trial balloon. But it was, around here, the car dealerships who brought this to attention not politicians. And people seem to think maybe the dealerships made some good money, but I've heard that they got caught holding the bill for all that advertising and longer staff hours when the gov well dried up. It was then they decided to further fund it. Tax&Slave was dropped, FemaCare had spun out, needed a feather in the cap even if a turkey feather. |
| Posted by: swksvolFF 2009-08-07 17:48 |
| #5 I think C4C was a decent effort toward stimulating the economy by essentially putting $ directly into the hands of consumers. Whether or not it will ultimately prove valuable is for the future to decide. As a stimulus, it is far & away better than funneling billions into AIG to be then funneled into Sacks of Gold. As of 0930 EDT today, auto dealers have submitted over $1 Billion in total 'clunker' requests, thus over-subscribing the original C4C plan, and cutting a bit into the extended plan signed by O today. |
| Posted by: Anguper Hupomosing9418 2009-08-07 16:18 |
| #4 Somebody did the research, and actually the distribution of party registration was about equal, logi_cal. Regardless of any actual intent ("Of course they're all Republicans, the blood-sucking plutocrats!") closing the excess dealerships, about which Detroit has been complaining for several years, did not excessively punish Republicans. |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2009-08-07 13:26 |
| #3 Of course it was intended in part to be a payoff for their supporters. By forcing the closure of what has basically been proven to be 100's of dealerships that supported Republicans, they narrowed the field to their own supporters and, in turn (by only allowing the rebate on 'new' cars), benefit the unions by artificially stimulating demand for new cars coming off of depressed manufacturing lines. Personally, given the ratcheting-up of constituent outrage at DC politicians over this healthcare issue, I still believe they intended this as their little diversion to the debate, but got hosed by their own bureaucracy. The only evidence available is to compare their previous handling of their 'manufactured crises' and control of media & information in the past 4-5 months...this was a public relations disaster. To assume that they wanted to allow this unwanted attention on healthcare ignores the fact that they were concious of avoiding it and, by consequence, their complete disarray in handling of the outrage that is following (as being reported nationally). Be well, my fellow fishy friends... |
| Posted by: logi_cal 2009-08-07 11:30 |
| #2 Right what AZ said. What ever a democrat wants to fix, they do the exact opposite as they are All incompotent as hell and too stupid to learn. Products of their own education or corruption. One day, I will write a book about what I wrote in rantburg, but until then I shall remind any reader about the 5 great thing they have accomplished: "stimulous bill" - basket weaving, whine, cheese, and yoga Omnibus spending - Pop another trillion onto the budget to pay off unions in GM and other idiot democrat programs "Cap and Tax" - The total failure of common sense for the Goldman Sachs and GE subsiders of this piece of shit government and the fleecing of America under the social democratic cause of "global climate change" and other spoofs of reality. "Cash for clunkers" It was supposed to help GM, but instead ruined all the spare parts the poor need and sent money to foreign car makers. Healthcare deform - well, as you know, if you vote the wrong way, government has a deapth care plan for you. Still sorting through supreme court decisions in the 1850's surrounding government interference in insurance. No luck yet. please tell me if you find something. What a failure this past 3 years have been in total. It is more than a 22 trillion boondogle and someone needs to kill it right away. |
| Posted by: newc 2009-08-07 04:52 |
| #1 I wouldn't put it past them but it seems probable to me that it was primarily intended as a payoff to the unions and a bit of good economic news that they could manufacture then trumpet. |
| Posted by: AzCat 2009-08-07 03:13 |