The "Cash for Clunkers" program will reportedly end two months early. Not only has the program run out of money twice already, but dealers are pulling out, fearing that they will not be paid the rebates promised.
One of the big problems is that the Federal Government needs more people to administer this program. Another is that the 13 page application, and the application process itself is confusing. The kicker for car dealers is simply non-payment:
"A dealers’ group in metropolitan New York said about half of its 425 members had stopped participating as of this week.
“I don’t know one dealership that’s gotten paid yet,” said Laura Sodano, a sales manager at Curry Chevrolet in Scarsdale, N.Y. “If they run out, we’re in trouble. It’s bringing us a lot of traffic, but it’s not a very good program.”
This story comes from the uber-liberal New York Times.
Now the Democrat-run Federal Government has proven itself to be utterly incapable of satisfactorily managing a tiny, 3 billion dollar auto exchange program involving just 457,000 vehicles. One can question the point of the whole program if car sales fall off a shelf in coming months. But what does this episode say about the government's ability to manage a 1 trillion dollar program affecting a hundred million Americans or more?
Can you just imagine doctors and hospitals pulling out of accepting government insurance and catering only to the privately insured because of the government's awful payment policies? Can you just imagine the doctors who will leave the field altogether simply because it's not worth the effort anymore? Government already accounts for some 45% of all healthcare spending. What happens to quality and access to care when Government controls 60-70% of spending? Can you just imagine the red tape you will have to go through simply to get a test or treatment or prescription approved by some government wonk?
What makes anyone think that if this kind of bungling can happen with a minuscule program like cash for clunkers, it won't happen with the public "option?"
If this crummy legislation passes, I'll just pray that neither I nor anyone in my family ever gets sick.
