Cash For Clunkers ... Suckers

Cash for Clunkers was, by some accounts, a tremendous success. Cash given for cars with poor mileage so that people could afford more fuel efficient cars? Seems like the perfect plan. And get this – it helped out the ailing auto industry. There was one word you didn't really hear too much about, though.

Subsidy.

Cash for Clunkers was a subsidy for the auto industry, which kind of deserves to be where it's at due to poor decisions made by the goons in charge. (Hyundai, it should be noted, does not seem to be having the same problems as the U.S. car companies.) It was another form of a bailout. That money wasn't given to people to buy bikes, which would have been even more fuel efficient. It was given to buy cars. Expensive cars. Jack your insurance rate up because you're making payments cars.

The auto industry, as to be expected, loved it. (Especially the Japanese manufacturers, who by some accounts are getting most of this money.) Many Americans loved it, too. I'm sure other ailing industries would love to have their customers wooed with payouts, too. Alas, poor Joe Six Pack, you'll get no money to buy your Schlitz.

Where's the Sixty for Sluts program? Sixty bucks to go to a hooker. What about G's for Games, where you get money to buy video games? Singles for Sodas? Money for Movies? Bills for Butts? Cash for Cable? It seems silly when you think about it, but I understand the thought process behind it. Help the auto industry. Clean up the environment ... somewhat. It's all very feel-good, typical liberal bullshit.

Obama has been, and I say this with all seriousness, a colossal disappointment. He spins a great speech, has tremendous plans, but can't seem to pull anything together and make it stick. Democrats paint him as a messiah with a degree and a knack for communication. Republicans paint him as a socialist of the worse sort (which is about the worse they are capable of saying without exposing any racist undertones inherent in the party). The truth is he's just another talking head who says things a lot of people (and other countries) want to hear. When you think about his record and a lot of his rhetoric, however, you start to see that there isn't much difference between him and any other president we've had since I've been alive. He's keeping the military-industrial complex firmly in place. He speaks of fixing healthcare. He values education. He wants to help the poor. About the only notable thing he's really done to set himself apart from his peers is to say that his administration will leave the medicinal marijuana operations alone. When it comes down to it, he's a more politically correct Clinton, a more articulate Baby Bush, a less secretive Father Bush, a better educated Reagan, and a more effective Carter. I fear that when he leaves office after his second term (and I think that we will have him for two terms) his greatest contribution to American history is that he will be the first black president ... and nothing else.

Cash for Clunkers is a bail-out like when the Baby Bush administration hooked up Haliburton. Yeah, one is less evil, but it's still capitalism at its finest. When social services are getting cut in almost all the states, pumping money into GM and Ford's coffers seems a little distasteful.

This is his standard MO. Sell a good plan and people seem to forget what it is they are buying. I think he's a better choice than some and not as good as others, and I like that he values intelligence and science, but I temper that with a realistic view of what he really is. He's the gatekeeper of the status quo. He may be better at keeping the rabble in line without the use of force, but make no mistake, he's still keeping us in line.

God, if only he did half of what he people think he's capable of we'd all be a lot better off. Unfortunately, he's part of a corrupt system, which ultimately limits his effectiveness. Cash for Clunkers may do exactly what he wants it to, and that's the problem.


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cash for clunkers