–I thought it was cash for lunkers. Caught a 38 pound catfish the other day. What is that worth?

Joe,

How about Kit Bond? He voted an additional $2 billion for the program and crowed how it would save American jobs. Unfortunately, the Italians had already shipped Chrysler production to Mexico. Smooth.

Kit Bond is part of the problem too! Why anyone think government can help the economy with these silly programs is beyond me. Its truly time for a housecleaning. I hope Blunt and the current GOP is reading this. Stop backing these liberal Republicans. Do you see the mess you have caused? Its time to put some REAL conservatives in power. Government is over bearing and are spending our money and money for the next few generations!

Lets see how this works. AMERICAN car dealers are selling cars they otherwise wouldn’t have sold, rolling cash into the local economies of thousands of cities and towns. AMERICAN citizens are building cars in factories across the country, taking home paychecks that stimulate local economies in dozens of cities and towns. AMERICAN truck drivers are hauling cars across the country to the previously mentioned dealers, drinking coffee served by AMERICAN waitresses in truck stops all over the place. And so on.

hs

I am going to finish your thought.

And so on. Since the number one seller is a Toyota, all the profits go to Japan.

Magnum: I beg to differ.

Studies show that for every dollar paid out in payroll in a town or city, somewhere between 10 and 20 dollars of value is added to the local economy. When a car dealer sells a car, all manner of positive things happen locally…which is where it needs to happen.

If you want to talk about the disappearance of the US industrial base, we can have that conversation….but that isn’t the point here. The point is that one can show quite easily that the $3B spent on this program is CREATING economic activity to the tune of $30B to $60B across all 50 states. And that, fundamentally, is a good thing.

Magnum: one more thought…There are a lot of Americans who own stock in Toyota, who collect dividends (Pretty good ones, by the way) on those profits and spend them….where? Oh, in the USA.

Uh the key fact not mentioned by Mr. Merriman is that every nickel of the money spent on this program is borrowed money.

Oh and creating temporary and false demand for a producet isn’t going to lead to any sustained economic growth. The showrooms will be ghost towns once this “free” borrowed money dries up. Mark my words.

Lunny…every dollar of Bush”s tax cuts for the rich was from “borrowed” money. So was Bush”s debacle in Iraq.So was Bush”s 1.5 TRILLION Medicare drug benefit.

Mr. Merriman,

Perhaps I can help you here. The “Cash For Clunkers” program (it is not a law; it is not mandatory) was not designed as a stimulus package, although it has had some economically stimulating effects. The program was designed to get vehicles that get 9 or 10 MPG off the road and replace them with vehicles that get 26-30 MPG in their place, thereby easing the demand for foreign oil. In this the program has been a success beyond anyone’s imagination. If you do not like US money going to foreign carmakers, one would assume you would feel the same way about US money going to foreign oil producers.