Clunkers for Cash: Subsidy for the Rich

I'd like to take a moment and complain heartily about the Clunkers for Cash program. In case you haven't heard, it allows you to get something like up to $4,500 from the government if your old car is sufficiently fuel-inefficient and it is replaced with a tidy little econobox... brand new, of course. And that is where my problem lies.

Just to clarify my wider stance, I disagree with the program itself on the simple basis that I do not believe the government should be using my taxpayer dollars to pay people for the cars that they drive. This is not a matter of national defense or the simple running of the government. It is not a matter of ensuring the uncoerced determination of value that runs a good free market economy. However, even were I to agree with the program and with the government's administering of it, I can still find a problem with what it does and for whom.

If you are going to buy a new car, you need one of two things: a bank account containing the money for a new car, or enough room in your budget for a monthly payment. My family has neither. I continue to wonder how we would be classified economically. My husband works a middle-class job, technically. Since I do not work full-time (I purposely took a job with lower earning power than I actually have, because it is family-friendly), our household income is less than half of what you might expect from a family with college-educated parents. Anyways, the relevancy to this topic is that we have neither sufficient savings to buy a new car nor the room in our monthly budget to make payments on a new car.

Therefore, Cars for Clunkers automatically does absolutely nothing for us.

Recently, my husband's car permanently died. It was a '90 Cutlass Ciera that we bought six years ago for $500, and though it technically still runs, its problems include brake line failure, a rusty gas tank beginning to leak, a transmission that downshifts as if it's going to drop out of the vehicle, and a myriad of mysterious oil leaks. It garnered, on average, 15-20mpg.

We took all of our savings and purchased an '01 Honda Civic. Despite having higher mileage than the car we are replacing, it looks as if it has at least five more years of life in it. My husband reports fuel economy in the neighborhood of 50mpg, but that is only an estimate, since he has not had to fill the gas tank yet.

My car is an '89 Chevy Cavalier station wagon. As of right now, it has no mechanical problems, just a few cosmetic 'quirks'. The body is finally rusting, and I hope it can hold together until we can afford its replacement. If it doesn't keep running for another three or four years at least, we may be stuck with one car, which is tougher than it sounds when you live at least 3 miles away from any non-residential building.

If the Honda Civic was a new vehicle, we would surely qualify for Cash for Clunkers. Unfortunately, we don't have the money to buy a new vehicle. Even the least expensive new vehicle, after the government rebate, would be at least twice what we paid for the Honda. If the program worked for used cars, we could have just about paid for the Honda with the rebate and still had our little nest egg to use when my car gives up its ghost.

But I've learned a long time ago that the government, when run by Liberals, doesn't care about people like us.

The kicker is this: Since we are not too poor to pay taxes, the government will be taking money that we could have used to save for our car fund and using it to pay people who earn more than we do so that they can buy their brand-new cars for less.

Liberals often wonder how anybody below the upper-middle-class could possibly disagree with their social programs. I'm here to explain that this is just one of many examples that formed my anti-socialist bent.

If the government trying to help troubled Americans save the economy results in lower-class Americans paying for upper-class Americans to drive brand new cars, what will the government trying to help troubled Americans afford health care do to us?

Let's show them how we do things in cyberspace!

http://www.rollcall.com/issues/55_12/news/37125-1.html?type=printer_friendly

Congressional rules for franked mail bar Members from using taxpayer-funded mail for newsletters that use “partisan, politicized or personalized” comments to criticize legislation or policy.

The dispute over Brady’s chart is being reviewed by the franking commission, which must approve any mail before it can be sent. No decision had been made on the matter by press time.

Brady adamantly denied that the chart was misleading and said Democrats are simply threatened by the content of the graphic.

“I think their review was laughable,” Brady said. “It’s ... downright false in most of the cases. The chart depicts their health care plan as their committees developed it.”

“The chart reveals how their health care bureaucracy works, and people are frightened by it,” he added. “So this is their effort to try and discredit” the chart.

Republican Members have made 20 requests to mail a version of the chart to their constituents and have been told that the requests are being delayed while the commission reviews allegations that the chart is misleading.

...
The dispute centers on a chart (view PDF) created by Rep. Kevin Brady (R-Texas) and Republican staff of the Joint Economic Committee to illustrate the organization of the Democratic health care plan.

At first glance, Brady’s chart resembles a board game: a colorful collection of shapes and images with a web of lines connecting them.

But a closer look at the image reveals a complicated menagerie of government offices and programs that Republicans say will be created if the leading Democratic health care plan becomes law.

UPDATE: Congressman Carter's Twitter confirms this report in the blogosphere: The Democrats are blocking free speech in the House. We can not use the words "Democrats" or "Government Run Healthcare" in official mail.

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I say let's show this "government of transparency" what happens when they try to block Republicans from showing us what's really going on. Please feel free to post/spread this on your own blog and/or email, complete with link to the PDF file. After the fiasco surrounding the DVD encryption key, the Democrats should know that you can't just hide things from the citizenry anymore.

If Cars Were People

I was honestly on my way to write this idea when a fellow blogger wrote this far better than I ever could. So without further ado, here is friday's description of health insurance... for cars...

My fellow Americans, we have a crisis in our nation. We have people driving around across this bountiful land with their engine light on, their oil light on, and no muffler. We have people who have to choose between going another 1,000 miles between oil changes or buying dinner. There have been stories told of people watering down their anti-freeze, disconnecting their O2 sensor, and some never changing their air filter because our auto repair industry is corrupt, overpriced, and needs reform.

These are the facts: Most employers do not provide their employees with adequate auto insurance. Most auto insurance is unaffordable and only covers accidents. Some auto insurance only pays for the other person's car in the case of an accident.

The fact is, lack of comprehensive auto insurance, including insurance for minor repairs and routine maintenance, is the leading cause of death in this country*. Most repair jobs are drastic and overpriced because Americans could not afford routine maintenance. Many people are forced to take public transportation, or walk to work which costs them their jobs or results in them dying of exposure. If we provided comprehensive auto insurance and repairs to every American, we could actually save money by preventing the need for drastic repairs.

Now, I know the opposition thinks we should keep the status quo. They say we should do nothing, let the chips fall where they may. Well, I tell you that we are a generous nation and auto care is a right, not just something for the privileged few rich people in our country. It makes no sense, in our rich country, for Americans to be going without proper brake fluid levels.

It is time to introduce a public option for auto insurance and repairs. It is time to make sure that every American is able to live and work and drive without having to worry where their next fillup will come from or if they will be able to survive if their alternator dies.

Now, I don't want to run the auto insurance or repair industry. That should be up to the private sector. That is why I am proposing a government funded public auto insurance and repair program that anyone can subscribe to and it will be subsidized and free for many. Some people say that this is socialist. That's ridiculous. I don't have time to run the auto repair industry. A public option won't undercut or replace private insurers, it will just compete with them at a far lower subsidized price.

To pay for it, we will cut funding to public transportation. This will save us billions of dollars. We will also tax gasoline additives, racing tires, tinted windows and performance products that cause people to take unnecessary risks and add unnecessary wear and tear on their vehicles. We will put together a computer database of every driver with their tickets, average mileage, and other factors to determine the best treatment of their vehicles. If they drive too fast, we won't pay for certain repairs. Also, to cut costs in the repair industry we won't allow for repairs on vehicles over 15 years old or 200,000 miles. Every year you will have to provide proof or auto insurance or you and your employer will each be taxed an additional 8% of your salary. These measures will make universal auto insurance and repairs deficit neutral.

To ensure high quality of repairs, anyone who works on a car in the public or private arena must have a federal license and at least 6 years of college education in automotive studies. Now, I don't want to choose your mechanic for you, so as long as you pick the most local, experienced mechanic matched to you by our database, you can have any mechanic you want.

Right now our automotive repair industry is worse than most third world countries**! This is America. I hope we can change this. I know we can do better and end the status quo. Please submit your ideas and questions via youtube.com, and we will give a prize of $2,500 to the individual who submits the question that best illustrates why we need universal auto care.

We must pass this quickly. America is relying on us and every day more cars die and more people die because of it. We can't afford not to reform our auto insurance and repair industry.

*Taking into account deaths caused by faulty auto repairs, automobile accidents, possible exposure caused by walking, suicides potentially related to not having a car, suicides with a car, deaths in subway systems and public transportation apparatus and global warming deaths.

**Taking into account total number of repairs, average cost for repairs, and how long individuals keep their cars before selling them.

Demystifying the "Messiah"

Folks, the Republican Party made a crucial mistake when Obama appeared on the scene as Democratic candidate for President. I would have warned of this earlier, had I fully realized the import of the mistake. Now it's done, and he's in office, and there is not much we can do beyond letting the Democrats own their own errors in policy and gearing up for a conservative sweep in 2010.

(The irony is that a Democratic president with a Republican congress may be the best balance for our country. He keeps them in line by vetoing compromises because they don't go far enough, and the media finds themselves railing against a nebulous group of a couple hundred people instead of focusing a laser-eye on one man.)

This is the error: The Democrats have done their best to make him seem different somehow, special, unusual and new. The Republicans have only helped.

The first black president! Barack Obama! The unspoken 'Hussein' vibrates through the crowd. Is he Muslim? Is he Kenyan? Is he American? What about his birth certificate? What about his policies? Whatever he is, he's new. He's different. He isn't the same ol'. He just might get us out of this mess.

Even the Republican's attempts to cast doubt on him has only strengthened his position as a mystical figure. McCain's attempts to be 'gentlemanly' and avoid the infamous middle name left it as the proverbial (and ironic) elephant in the room, the silent reminder each time he avoided it that it was indeed waiting there. The grassroots concern about Obama's Muslim heritage draws our minds to the Middle East, to strange beliefs and unusual laws. None of this is what President Obama truly is, but it has only helped to cement his image as not quite the ordinary politician.

Before the election, people kept asking me if I thought Obama was Muslim. I took an honest look at his policies and as much of his home life as we were able to see and said no. I thought (and still think) he is merely a Unitarian Universalist, just like the church he attended for 20 years. The Unitarian Universalist church, though members may vary widely in their beliefs, is not like the Catholic church or the Baptist church. Their belief system is more like a buffet table than a simple dinner or a seven-course meal. They pick and choose as they please from various religious beliefs, including Christianity. In this way, though some members are likely fully Christian, the denomination is only Christian by the same "one drop" logic that makes Obama black instead of "mixed race".

See, a Muslim, even a secret one, in office would not be governing the way Obama is governing. "But he may be a moderate! Just because his wife doesn't wear the garment and he doesn't pray to Mecca... he's in hiding!" I'm sorry, but my evidence isn't anywhere near that obvious. Everyone, whether they hide their religion or not, is influenced by its worldview. Muslims are so careful about debt management that stock/bond packages featuring Muslim-approved companies are actually popular in the U.S. because these packages are among the few who are not rapidly losing value in this crisis caused by irresponsible financing. A Muslim Obama would not have sought to deal with debt by creating tons more. A Muslim Obama would not be supporting abortion under every circumstance at any time. A Muslim Obama may not require his wife to wear a hijab, but he sure as heck wouldn't want her to go walking about with bare arms. (She's drawn criticism for that, so let me be clear: I do not share that criticism. I think it's fine if she wants to go sleeveless. I have zero problem with it. But it's far, far outside of Muslim decency mores even for a moderate.)

Now, I knew that Obama was the senator from Illinois. Still, it never sunk into my mind, because the Democrats kept emphasizing that he was from Hawaii and the Republicans kept emphasizing that he was from Kenya. Hawaii is exotic and Kenya more so. Whether you are excited or alarmed by either setting, it still adds to the mystique. A Chicago Politician doesn't carry nearly the same level of interest, yet that is what he is.

This is important. When you take Barack (Hussein) Obama, born in Hawaii and possibly secretly Muslim, you have a mysterious character. Add his policy decisions, which don't seem to fall into any pattern, and you have a very confusing man. Even his detractors don't seem to know what to do with him. However, when you take Barry Obama, the Chicago politician, everything he's done makes perfect sense. And we know what to do with Chicago politicians.

So unlike some conservative bloggers, I do not encourage you to refer to this man as Barack Hussein Obama in order to reveal the truth and dispel the mystique. Instead, I encourage you, as Dumbledore referred to "The Dark Lord", not even as "Voldemort", but simply as "Tom Riddle", to call our new president "Barry Obama". President Barry Obama, the liberal Chicago politician and Universalist Unitarian. Say this before reading any of his policies or stances, and everything else will fall right into place.