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7/24/2009
Cash for Clunkers. Your government at work
The government (you and I) is spending a billion bucks to supposedly green and stimulate America at the same time.
Let’s not even talk about the merits of the program. The question is - what program?
Auto dealers all over the country are receiving countless inquiries – and like Tom Thorstad in Madison, are refering customers to a government web site ("Official Government Site"!)to get answers. Oh brother. The site proclaims “Late July” as “Target for Program Implementation.” Dealers and consumers, who have countless questions about the program, are expecting “final rules” issued today.
The government may have another idea. “While the CARS Act makes transactions on and after July 1 potentially eligible for credits under the CARS program, interested dealers and consumers may want to wait until all of the detailed issues that must be addressed in the implementing regulations are resolved and the final rule is issued. Issuance will occur around July 24.” (Elsewhere, in question and answer style, some bureaucrat has a different idea “NHSTA must issue those regulations on or before July 24, 2009, legislation.” (sic) Emphases are mine.)
Geez.
Ok. So people are being encouraged to get rid of junk cars and buy new (only new, not used) ones. And junk or not, if the government defines them as junk, they will indeed NOT be salvageable.
The CARS Act requires that the trade-in vehicle be crushed or shredded so that it will not be resold for use in the United States or elsewhere as an automobile. The entity crushing or shredding the vehicles in this manner will be allowed to sell some parts of the vehicle prior to crushing or shredding it, but these parts cannot include the engine or the drive train. As the government info site says, stay tuned. We are continuously refining this great program.
Keep in mind that we are still in the process of finalizing the rule for the CARS program. There are questions we will not be able to answer until the rule is final, which will be on July 24.
In the meantime, please visit our FAQs, for answers to the most commonly asked questions. We are updating the website as information becomes available, so check back often. Today’s the day. Stay alert. Keep visiting that website!
In the final rule, NHTSA will seek to balance the need to provide prompt payment to dealers with the need to prevent fraud and preserve records for the purposes of enforcing program requirements. NHTSA is meeting with a variety of groups to ensure that a proper balance is struck. NHTSA will also need to set up and staff a new office to administer the CARS program. (From FAQs) I can’t wait.
Jo Egelhoff, FoxPolitics.net
COMMENTS
Leave it up to punch drunk, bleary eyed Uncle Sam to do exactly the wrong thing. Americans need to be saving money, not encouraged to get into further debt to buy high ticket depreciating consumer goods.
Brian Heyer (Fri Jul 24 07:50:45 2009)
That's not nearly as juicy as the government giving money to ACORN. HERE'S THE ARTICLE from World Net Daily:
In a move to block designation of $8.5 billion in economic stimulus funds, Republicans on a House committee released a report calling for a criminal investigation of ACORN, the community activist group tied to numerous charges of voter fraud nationwide.
The 88-page report asks whether ACORN, the Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now, is intentionally structured as a criminal enterprise.
Commissioned by Rep. Darrell Issa of California, the ranking Republican on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform, the report charges ACORN "hides behind a paper wall of nonprofit corporate protections to conceal a criminal conspiracy on the part of its directors, to launder federal money in order to pursue a partisan political agenda and to manipulate the American electorate."
The report expresses concern that ACORN would channel $8.5 billion in economic stimulus funds through a criminal corporate structure designed to mask the distribution of public money to partisan activities, including voter fraud to advance the campaigns of radical Democratic politicians.
"It is undisputed that ACORN engages in politically partisan activity," the report declared, noting ACORN was paid $832,000 by the Obama 2008 presidential campaign for get-out-the-vote efforts.
One-third of the 1.3 million voter registration cards turned in by ACORN in 2008 were invalid, the report said, noting a series of criminal actions involving voter fraud have been taken against ACORN in Arkansas, Pennsylvania and Nevada since 1998.
"ACORN cannot be receiving government money," Issa told Glenn Beck on the Fox News Channel in his first interview after releasing the report. "ACORN should lose its tax-free status."
Within the last week, Rep. Steve King, R-Iowa, has introduced several amendments to various pieces of legislation to prohibit ACORN from receiving taxpayer funds and to prevent the group from helping carry out the 2010 census.
Congressional Democrats have fought King's efforts, rejecting each amendment he has submitted.
Since 1994, ACORN has received more than $53 million in federal funds, according to the report.
Specifically, the report made the following criminal allegations:
ACORN has evaded taxes, obstructed justice, engaged in self-dealing, and aided and abetted a cover-up of embezzlement by Dale Rathke, the brother of ACORN founder Wade Rathke.
ACORN has committed investment fraud, deprived the public of its right to honest services, and engaged in racketeering affecting interstate commerce.
ACORN has committed a conspiracy to defraud the United States by using taxpayer funds for partisan political activities.
ACORN has submitted false filings to the Internal Revenue Service and the Department of Labor, in addition to violating the Fair Labor Standards Act.
ACORN falsified and concealed facts concerning an illegal transaction between related parties in violation of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974.
ACORN owes its origin to a revolutionary strategy developed in the 1960s by Columbia University's professor of social work Richard A. Cloward and his research associate, Frances Fox Piven.
In what became known as the Cloward-Piven strategy, the two sociologists argued for a revolutionary approach to mobilizing the poor. They advocated a form of class warfare against capitalist forces perceived as exploiters of labor and oppressors of the poor.
David Horowitz, a long-time student of leftist political movements in the United States, characterized the Cloward-Piven strategy as seeking "to hasten the fall of capitalism by overloading the government bureaucracy with a flood of impossible demands, thus pushing society into crisis and economic collapse."
"Economic collapse"...Looks as if they are succeeding.
emily matthews (Fri Jul 24 10:45:19 2009)
Frankly, pushing sales of cars is not the WORST way for the Gummint to spend money. The fuel-efficiency stuff is a bonus, sort of, as well.
Better than paying 2x market for canned ham.
dad29 (Fri Jul 24 12:41:06 2009)
"Americans need to be saving money, not encouraged to get into further debt to buy high ticket depreciating consumer goods."
The site claims the rebate is '$3,500 or $4,500'. If I trade in my '97 Escort for a new Kia at around $13k .. that is not a whole lotta debt.
On the other hand, my Escort runs 'ok' and I don't need another car payment, even for 7k of debt.
Brian Dunbar (Fri Jul 24 15:16:09 2009)
2X market for canned ham?
Jo (Sat Jul 25 15:35:35 2009)
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