Cash for clunkers speedbumps have implications for national healthcare

Why not Cash for Cluckers?

What we have here is a failure to anticipate.  Cash for Clunkers is barely a week old and judging from published reports, the program has become a circular firing squad. In dealerships across the country, confusion reigns. People don't know if the program is suspended or not.  The Senate is supposed to approve more funding this week, but maybe not.  Claims submitted by dealers are being rejected. One day a car qualifies for a $4,500 voucher and the next day it doesn’t. Where is the federal anticipation czar who estimated funding that was supposed to last until November 1, ran out instead in just a few days?

Latest reports indicate Congress “came up” with an additional $2 billion to keep the program going. Next time you’re short on funds at the end of the month, see how easy it is for you to “come up” with extra money for the mortgage or that college tuition bill when you do not have the power to forcibly extract money from other people, and you don’t own a printing press.

Readers have contacted me, asking for advice because one day the EPA mileage website says their “clunker” qualifies them for a $4,500 voucher, but when they get to the dealership, they learn the mileage figures have changed and they are entitled to only a $3,500 rebate. Did the EPA change the figures or is the dealer looking at the wrong website? I don’t know what to tell these people, other than to check with another dealer and see if they get a different answer.

One dealer's experiences
Here is a synopsis of one dealer’s experiences so far with Cash for Clunkers. According to Alan Lee, co-owner of Lee Auto Malls: applications for vouchers are being rejected in large numbers; over 100 claims are waiting to be paid and none have yet been paid; the program requires multiple dealership employees to administer when it should only require one; the program rules changed midway through. One has to wonder if dealers across the country are having similar experiences.

Symbolic of big government programs like national healthcare
Without meaning to, Cash for Clunkers is fast becoming symbolic of big government programs – and a metaphor for national health care.  Eric from Texas, in a TownHall.com blog lays it out this way:

Cash for Clunkers:
- temporary
- costs $1 to $4 billion
- very simple (only involves trading in cars)
- small number of people

National Healthcare:
- permanent
- cost $2-4 trillion
- incredibly complex (involves medical treatment)
- hundreds of millions of people

Regardless of one’s political persuasion or opinion on the question of national health care reform, mismanagment of the Cash for Clunkers program should give everyone reason to pause and reflect. If the government can’t manage a simple voucher program which trades old cars for new ones, should they trust the government to run a national healthcare program infinitely larger and more complex?  To be sure, our nation’s health care system is in need of reform, but why the rush? 

No one leaves this country to seek medical care in other countries. In fact the exact opposite is true: people come to America from all over the world to get medical treatment they can’t get in their home countries, and many of these people come from countries that have national health care programs.

Cash for Cluckers
Since the government is now in the business of subsidizing lifestyle choices by handing out cash vouchers, why limit these to just automobiles? Syndicated columnist Charles Krauthhamer had a great idea:  Cash for Cluckers – whereby the government issues citizens cash vouchers to purchase chicken if they agree to empty their refrigerators of cholesterol-laden red meat products like beef and turn it in to government recycling centers. 

Read more about it:
Is Cash for Clunkers a clunker of a deal for taxpayers?
www.Cashforclunkers.org
Q&A on how Cash for Clunkers would work.
Cash for Clunkers passes in U.S. House
The EPA's official site for fuel economy figures:  www.fueleconomy.gov

1931 Hupmobile Century 8 Phaeton photo by Mike Karagozian

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