Good luck getting that Dr. appointment!!!!

izoneguy on August 19, 2009 at 9:41 PM

I laughed everyone of those ha-has.

No one, and I mean No One is getting reimbursed under this crappy program.

I don’t even think 2% so far is likely.

I was at my car dealer last weekend…a major Toyota franchise in the Philly area…who told me that at that point they were in the hole over $1 Million in “rebates” extended to clunker participants. The dealers front the rebates for Bambi through their own line of credit, and are saddled with the debt, and the interest (which is NEVER reimbursed) while the Clunker Czar sits on the $3 Billion allocated, paying no one.

Another success story.

I’m so glad they want to do everything for me.

A critic of this blog recently stated we should look at proven healthcare systems around the world and model our reform after those. ……

So that’s it, 3 applications per day. So either the applications are hopelessly complicated and probably not worth the hassle from the dealership’s persepective in the first place, or these employees are hopelessly inefficient or dragging their feet so as to be employed the maximum amount of time.

If you add in the rejected claims, you come out to around 7 per day reviewed per employee. I saw this as less important, as it likely takes alot less time to find a reason to say no. Unless, of course, that’s part of their direction to begin with.

Finally, if the current total is now 1100 employees, and they are just as efficient as the previous crop, it will take them over 250 days to process the current claims. How did someone in the govt think it would only take 10 days to turn the paperwork around???

do you think gov’t motors will announce availability and start taking orders for a new car before the factory line has geared up for production?

AASLT on August 20, 2009 at 9:04 AM

The difference is claims submitted vs. claims paid. Over $3 billion worth of clunkers have been turned in, the government just hasn’t gotten around to mailing the checks yet. So thus far, the program could more accurately be called “Hope & $change, for clunkers”.

So, like I said, imagine health care claims being handled with the same “efficiency”.

Also, annual auto sales in 2007 were 16.1 million (1.34 million per month) and 2008 the annual sales were 13.2 (1.1 million per month). That means no one is even predicting anything near a “recovery” in the auto industry. When all is said and done, we will be out 3 billion, and dealerships all across America will be closing, and people will wonder why.

Weight of Glory on August 19, 2009 at 10:01 PM

Basically, the program pulled Q4 sales into Q3, nothing more.
Well, that and not actually fulfilling its promises to pay out.

to manufacture new spare parts to replace the millions that went to the scrapper instead of to mechanics. must be a lot of carbon

photoboy74 on August 20, 2009 at 8:11 AM

You’re right. You’re just right.

They’ll be over by $10 billion and I’m not kidding.

to transport the car to the scrapper. must be a lot of carbon.

to manufacture new spare parts to replace the millions that went to the scrapper instead of to mechanics. must be a lot of carbon (electricity to power the spare parts plant, workers to get to and from spare parts plant).

melting down the scrap metal to be re-made into steel. that takes a lot of energy and makes a lot of carbon.

transporting a percentage of that steel (or scrap to be re-made into steel) to be re-manufactured in say china or india, because labor costs are far cheaper there than here. we know that takes a hell of a lot of energy AND pollutes like there is no tomorrow in these countries. yet they don’t have to worry about it, just us! that is a lot of carbon.

any chance the government is going to have to pay taxes on all of this carbon?

bravo!!!

It was reported on Fox News tonight that the Obama administration now has a staff of 1100 people in place to coordinate the disbursement of funds to the dealers. So months after the program is introduced, people are hired to manage the program.

Great. And the reason they weren’t ready and able from the get-go was, what?

Brought to you by the same people who want to manage a trillion dollar health care program.

There’s going to be a lot a corpses laying around. Invest heavily in lime folks.

fogw on August 19, 2009 at 9:46 PM

1,100 jobs? has anyone done the math for that? sure, the messiah can claim his program has created 1,100 new jobs. bravo!!! but is this money budgeted in the cash for clunkers program? if not, are they being paid from cash for clunkers money? or is it just adding to the deficit spending william buffett strongly warned us in todays new york times?

let us say, that these 1,100 jobs aren’t that well paying. oh…they are on an average gov’t payscale of gs-3. i know next to nothing about what an entry-level job starts at for the gov’t (only time i collected a paycheck from uncle sam was when i was in the navy). i only say gs-3 because it isn’t gs-1, which to me would mean “high-school or ged.” gs-3 to me says, “some college.” gs-3 on a step 1 (i’m guessing “steps” are seniority/promotions?”) makes $20,911 a year. now the fun part…math!!!

$20,911 / 12 equals $1,742.58 per month per employee.
there are 1,100 employees.
$1,742.58 x 1,100 employees = $1,916,838 per month being paid to 1,100 cash for clunkers claims processor.
the rebate for trading in a car is $4,500.00.
$1,916,838 / $4,500 = 425,964 claims that maybe cannot be paid out per monthIF cash for clunkers ISpaying these (probably temporary) employees. of this is true, no wonder dealers aren’t being paid. it’s just a scam, to hire a thousand or so workers, to say that because of our program, we’ve CREATED 1,1OO new jobs!!

now maybe these temp jobs are on an hourly pay schedule, and it isn’t that much. nevertheless, i’m sure it adds up fast, and quite possibly taking money away from auto dealers.

if that is not the case, than relax!! it’s just adding a tiny itsy-bitsy to the deficit. what can go wrong?

Clearly these auto dealers are not illiterates. How mind-numbingly difficult did Big Barack’s Bureaucracy make this at their $52 million website (which crashed)?

How much more will it cost taxpayers just to process the thousands of applications?

How great will it be when the government is in charge of our health care and decides whether or not we are fully compliant?

When you “turn in” your Grandma,
So less paperwork….

Haiku Guy on August 20, 2009 at 6:01 AM

Yes, of course, so much easier to “pull the plug”, then to dismantle an auto…