Cash For Clunkers Under Budget With 690,000 Qualifying Sales
Of course, the federal government deficit-spent the $3 billion on the program in the first place, so it’s over budget no matter what they say.
WASHINGTON – The popular Cash for Clunkers program generated nearly 700,000 new car sales during the past month, giving the U.S. auto industry a badly needed jolt of activity during the deepest decline in auto sales in two decades.
The government, releasing final data on the car incentives, said Wednesday that dealers submitted 690,114 sales totaling $2.88 billion, bringing the program to a close under its $3 billion budget. Japanese auto manufacturers led American companies in new car sales through the program, which ended late Monday.
The liberals will be trying to cling to these numbers as proof of this much-maligned boondoggle’s success, but the real question is were these new sales that wouldn’t have happened without this subsidy or are they sales that would have happened anyway but happened now because people were cashing in?
I think it’s pretty obvious that the lion’s share of these sales are going to fall into the latter category, but time will tell. If car sales fall off a cliff for the next six months like I suspect they will we’ll know that this program was entirely worthless.
Oh, by the way, when your used car costs 15% more than it would have because of fewer used cars being on the market thanks to cash for clunkers destroying them, be sure to thank your congressman.
