‘…If the government had gotten it right, they would have known it would cost more than $1 billion.”

Hey Tazzy…

They’re …[the govmint] are gittin’ it right now…!
So what’s yer beef…?

Olde soldier sends…!

taznar on July 31, 2009 at 6:41 PM

Taz[zz]nar…
You dah babe …

“… Neither one of them predicted the market very well.”

HJM&J…If I could do dat…!
Both you and me would be on “easy street”…!

Geezer sends…

Geezer on July 31, 2009 at 4:47 PM

If the government had gotten it right, they would have known it would cost more than $1 billion. If the car companies would have gotten it right, they would have known the $1 billion would go too fast for them to develop big advertising campaigns. Nobody predicted that much money would be gone this fast. Neither one of them predicted the market very well.

They read the sorry state of the market “just right” and instituted the “Cash for Clunkers” program as precisely the right type of stimulus,that was required, at precisely the right time …?

Geezer on July 31, 2009 at 4:47 PM

Precisely the right stimulus would have been a tax cut to taxpayers so we could choose for ourselves whether we wanted a car, or a refrigerator, or whatever. The only thing in its favor is that this is the only stimulative thing the Feds have done, so under those pathetic conditions it’s a winner. Or was, until they screwed it up.

It’s bizarre to pay people to junk a perfectly good car. If all they cared about was stimulating the economy and not saving the “environment” from a non-existent threat they could have handed out cash with no strings attached. But this is the world we live in under the thumb (or boot?) of the Orwellian creatures in Congress.

taznar on July 31, 2009 at 3:55 PM

Huh…

My thought would be …

They read the sorry state of the market “just right” and instituted the “Cash for Clunkers” program as precisely the right type of stimulus,that was required, at precisely the right time …?

Buy Danish on July 31, 2009 at 4:27 PM

Hey Danish…
You gettit…

Car companies sunk money in ad campaigns to maximize their piece of the $1 billion plan, and somehow we’re supposed to feel bad for them because they could have gotten their piece of the pie for free, if they hadn’t misread the market as badly as the Obama administration and congress?

taznar on July 31, 2009 at 3:55 PM

Most of the ads came from local car dealers to get people to show up at their car lots.

CARS does not increase the demand for new automobiles, it merely shifts them forward. People who take advantage of the program were probably thinking about buying a new car or truck anyway.

This program really doesn’t stimulate as much as transfer resources from one group to another. Money spent on the new car is money not spent on something else. If the new car is bought with borrowed money someone else doesn’t get credit and it reduces future consumer income. Credit is nothing more then a future claim on your income.

jerryofva on July 31, 2009 at 11:55 AM

I haven’t figured out yet how they’re going to pin it on Bush when they realize that the next year’s worth of demand just got used up in four days. Pretty good chance that the industry collapses harder than it did last summer. The blame game would probably have to be Halliburton-related in some way.

CASH FOR GEEZERS — Government run healthcare.

tarpon on July 31, 2009 at 11:48 AM

Hey tarpon, do all you folks down there in the gulf wear “Cabela’s–guidewear” shirts and shorts…?

Car companies sunk money in ad campaigns to maximize their piece of the $1 billion plan, and somehow we’re supposed to feel bad for them because they could have gotten their piece of the pie for free, if they hadn’t misread the market as badly as the Obama administration and congress?

House Approves Additional $2B for ‘Cash for Clunkers’ to Continue…

Geezer sends…

And unlike foreclosed homes which are repo’d by the banks, at least these clunkers are paid for before they’re brought in to be sent to the clunkyard, and exchanged for a shiny (government subsidized) new one.

How do you do quotes, strike-outs, etc. with a mobile device on this website?

Colorado Anne on July 31, 2009 at 12:46 PM

I can see that you have become acquainted with our lack of features, so you are now, truly, a HA poster. Welcome to the family.

Creating a black market for parts at ungodly prices.

Libs are going to do this to health care.

Even libs should be concerned. Imagine black market abortions.

Abortions will always be available (at taxpayer expense) to prevent the return to “black market” abortions.

Wasn’t the whole liberal justification for Roe Vs. Wade to prevent “home style” “black market” abortions? Can you imagine black market heart surgery? Brain surgery? Gall Bladder removal, knee replacement etc., when the govt deems such procedures as not cost effective due to age, disability (physical or emotional), or condition (no liver transplants for alcoholics), and they are performed under who knows what kind of conditions and limited facilities (garages, homes, etc.).

Ah, the unintended consequences of another ill-conceived “green program.” Aren’t they all? Green, it’s the new RED!

JAM on July 31, 2009 at 11:50 AM

My Euro pals can’t stand ‘em either – they call environuts “Watermelons” over there; a thin Green skin but solid Red right to the core.

Who was it that said something like, “When the legislature is put in charge of buying and selling, the first things bought and sold are the legislators?”

And this was just to kill a few hundred thousand gas-guzzlers. Imagine what it will be like when the government takes charge of keeping hundreds of millions of people healthy.

Dude, that is a totally unfair comparison. Gas-guzzling cars emit CO2, so they HAVE to be destroyed for the good of the planet.

Trying to imply that liberals believe the same thing about human beings? That’s…. terrorism!

(I was going to say “that’s the absolute tr*th”, but I didn’t want to trigger any of the new Secret Service Internet red flags.)