Closing Arguments: More Cash for Clunkers?

Cash for Clunkers is about to be out of money!! ohh no!! how is that possible… All we have to do is print up more money. I mean thats the American way…. “spend today what you can save for tomorrow” for all who are my age just remember .. we once were the “youth” people were saving for. Now we are spending what was never left for us and more. WAKE UP!!!5

Expand the cach for clunker program, but let parts sold at used parts dealers

Although the government is stimulating the ecomony with this program. The design of the program should have been targeted to stimulate the industry of American made cars. If the decision is made to continue the program, please revamp it to ensure we are promoting American made products.

The government has put enough money into this program. The amount per vehicle should have been more limited so that more people could have used it. It should also have limited the funds to the less expensive cars and to American made cars.

The Dem’s finally found a way to stimulate the economy so now what do they do – pull the plug on “Cash for Clunkers” after just one week.
What is next – Health Care for the nation – only for a week????

I had a 91 Chevy Van (14 mpg)that qualified for the cash for clunkers, but it would not let me use it on a Hybrid Prius. I thought the aim was to get the gas guzzlers of the street. Why shouldn’t it be used for any model that gets better mileage.
It should be contined to help the fuel usage of the US as well as stimulate the auto business, which will trickle down the chain

yes they should out more money into this program.Some of us older people can’t aford a new car with out this .

No, the program should not be continued. It is wasteful & is taking away all of the available low priced cars for the people who can only afford to buy used cars and don’t qualify for a car loan. The auto manufacturer should be offering the buying incentives, not the government.

I’m glad the bailouts are helping the auto industry but what about the negative domino effect on an already ailing recycle market, used car dealers, auto repair shops not to mention the many worthwhile charities who have come to depend on auto donations to support their causes in this failing economy. I’m hoping that the CARS program comes to a quick end so that other areas of our economy have a fighting chance to survive.

Yes, keep it going. It is stimulating the economy. If the banks had been required to give loans with the money they were given, we would be out of this recession by now. This program actually works. Now if we can just get a real good Public Healthcare Option approved to help cut healthcare cost and cut down on the billions of profits made by the greedy insurance companies.
Healthcare Insurance companies should be non-profit.

If the clunkers for cash program has reached its budgeted limit ($1b) it should be ended. Deficit spending which will only hurt taxpayers in the long term makes no sense for this program.

For the people who intended to take advantage of the program but had the rug pulled out from under them by just cutting it off without warning, I say pull more money from a less successful stimulus program to continue this one.

I think the program should continue

I feel the program should be continued, the total allowance should be reduced to a max $2500.00 in free credit and allow an additional 2,500.00 in the form of a low interest federal loans @ 3% which would be returned to the treasury and should be processed through the dealer.
Also you would allow more people to take advantage of the program if they increased the age of the qualifying clunkers to 30 years (1979).
Only American manufactured car’s should qualfy but all brandsactually manufactured in the U.S. should be included, and a retail ( MSRP) price cap of $25,000 – $30.000 should be set.
Also audit the first group for fraud to insure that they legit and our tax payer money is well spent.

I think it’s a great program but they should put a income limit on it… Basically if someone can afford to buy a new car..they shouldn’t get government $$.. They should have a family income cap of $100K per year to assist middle income families who are needing a new car but unable to think about purchasing.. Trying to find reliable transportation was my single hardest part of completing college and even in my 30′s it’s major heartache..and saves GM and reduces their unwanted inventory.

I believe that it should definitely be funded with additional money since it helps the consumer, the environment and the economy.
In addition, I feel that the program should also be amended slightly to allow a “severely” mobility impaired wheelchair bound person that does not have the ability to walk, or get into their new car and just drive it off the lot, but allow such a person to hold on to their current automobile for a period of time and not have to surrender it immediately after buying their new automobile as it is currently written into the program, since such a person cannot drive the new automobile until it has been modified with hand controls ramps, lifts etc for them to drive it.
I welcome others input about this, as well as people contacting their congressmen/woman and senators to support this amendment issue to the program!

THINK!
Who are the American people that this economic stimulus is to support?
Is it Chase Manhattan? Is it GM? Is it IAG?
The poor slob with close to minimum wage who has had his credit destroyed by the ursurpers finally has a chance to buy an automobile that will benefit both the country and his family.
Volkswagen, designed by Porsch in the 1930′s was made for the ordinary German who needed transport that made sense.
Porsch decided to make Panzers.
Don’t waste this opportunity to give American people a chance to have a family car.
Keep the auto industry and the financial industry within bounds and more productive.
THINK! of the poor slob who is killing himself to stay afloat.

The program should definitely continue. The program is doing what it is intended to do. Stimulate the economy and help the ailing auto industry. Not to mention how it is grossly unfair for the program to terminate before interested consumers have a chance to participate. Thier should be a time constrant, like I thought it was, and not a monatery constrant. The program should run for the time period which was given. Do the right thing. Continue the program.

NO.. the citizens are better served by a national health care system.
Who benefits from the car subsidy? Only those who can afford to buy a new car (credit available, income qualifications, etc.). They could buy a new car without the subsidy… they did a big subsidy for HUMMERS too, a decade ago… most tax payers never heard of that one.
The new cars get better miles-per-gallon, but exhaust emissions aren’t changed for the subsidy (green house gases).
The estimated final cost of the bank/financial/auto industries is projected to wind up (according to CBS news recently) at $23.7 trillion dollars; but the republicans shudder about a mere $1.3 trillion dollar cost for a national health system… while a number of our wealthy allies (the g8) do have, and have had for a long time, national health programs for their citizens. American government has lost it’s sense of priorities (the Americans).

Yes, the response shows that the program
is working. I do believe that the program should be limited to or encouraged to benefit the American auto companies that need it the most

Absolutely continue it! It was the most effective stimulus yet. I was trying to get an answer about a 1991 Cadillac which was a real gas guzzler and the 5.7 liter engine in it was not listed on the govt’s website. Hours were spent on the phone, waiting for an answer to the question of eligibility and never received.
I think some of these cars that are being traded in should be donated to
people in real need and not necessarily outside the U.S.

Since most 6-cylinder, 2WD drive cars couldn’t pass the revised EPA mileage requirement of less than 18 mpg regardless of how polluting they are, the program didn’t help the average car owner or the environment. The program in its current format should be terminated and re-tooled to work for smaller cars with additional requirements imposed on auto dealers to ensure that they do not substitute taxpayer funded rebates for the discounts that they otherwise would have offered to make a sale.

Am I missing something here?
25,000 klunkers could cost no more than $112,500 MILLIION dollars — that is a mere 1.3 ONE-HUNDREDTHS of ONE percent of the stimulus money. It would take nearly 250 THOUSAND klunkers to cost a billion dollars.
If this is not going to be just nother palliative, a asmall dog thrown to the taxpayers, should we not be stimulating the auto industry by funding a dcouple of million new cars – especiallyas it seems about 3% of the stimulus packeage could be used to revitalize the largest single industry in the country – and DIRECTLY benefit the average consumer and genaeral businesses… not to mention that HUNDREDS of BILLIONS of TARP and Stimulus $$$ already have gone to a few fat-cat financial institutions who have done very little to provide necessary lending funds to the business people who support this economy.

Seems a very misguided program so kill it now.
It should have been limited to trading for new cars with significantly better gas mileage and linked to increasing taxes on gasoline to be used for bonuses to American companies that produce much more efficient cars. That way people would both be encouraged to drive less and more efficiently as well stimulate economy and make us less dependent on oil.

NO! This is just another SOCIALIST pro-gram! Where is the money coming from to pay for this? From thin air!!

Keep the program for pity sake!! I don’t qualify and even if I did ..I won’t spend that kind of money on a car that cost as much as a down payment for a house. But the program is working and for a change the little guy is getting their taxes back in a weird way… It works don’t mess with it!

Absolutely! I’d still be driving my still in great shape 1995 jeep cherokee and would have replaced it with a used vehicle in 4-5 years. The program has definitely encouraged me to get rid of the trusty jeep, increasing my mpg from 15 mpg to 30, but MOST important – reducing my annual contribution of money being stuffed into terrorists pockets by HALF and keeping my money on American soil in American companies!! Still too much money going into terrorists pockets for sure! But, I’d much rather have my money go to a legitimate business and contribute towards GDP instead of mass consumption of a limited quantity commodity that is primarily supplied by terrorist nations.
People can crab all they want about politics internally, but the truth is that the program working and is has far more benefit that what all the naysayers claim.
Quantifying the numbers in a quick calculation, if we can pull 1 million clunkers off the road, for each vehicle, the assumption is that mileage increases 15 mpg and drives the national average of 12,000 miles, then we would save 400 gallons per year per vehicle, or 400 million gallons. the 400 million gallons of gas would require an average barrel of crude to yield at least 50% gas (yes, it is a high end assumption) and that in turn means that America would be importing AT LEAST 19 million LESS barrels of oil (1 barrel = 42 gallons, at 50% yield, each barrel of oil would make 21 gallons of gasoline, thus 400 million gallons of oil would compute as follows:(400 million gallons/.50 yield)and divide that result by 42 gallons/bbl equals 19 million bbls.
Yes, fund the program for AMERICANS or fund the terrorists through higher gas consumption which leads to higher gas prices. I choose America. I choose my country first!