The Conservative Edge

The rush is over. The Cash-for-Clunkers program ended yesterday, August 24. Also known by the acronym CARS, the clunker program was originally planned to be effective through November of this year. Several factors may have contributed to the early termination.

For one thing, the processing duties were overwhelming. The government had to hire hundreds of people to keep up with the flood of paperwork. Additionally, many dealers weren’t getting reimbursed by the government. As a result, dealerships were left with dozens of clunkers on their lots. The dealers could send the vehicles to salvage yards only after receiving CARS money for the trade-ins.

Besides these and other operational hiccups, there might have been another reason the government terminated the program. Sales figures show that many Americans were still buying trucks and SUVs, rather than Priuses and Civics. Lots of folks wanted bigger vehicles; they simply traded in older trucks and 4×4s on similar, more fuel-efficient vehicles of the same size.

This is not what the Obama administration was hoping for. The were two underlying purposes of the CARS program. Firstly, the government hoped to steer people into buying the kinds of cars that the government wanted them to drive (and destroy hundreds of older vehicles in the process). Secondly, the government really wants people to think that only the government can provide for them. In fact, Obama made a statement earlier this year that “the federal government is the only entity left with the resources to jolt our economy back into life.” The CARS program is the first step in convincing the public of that notion.

And now, comes the second version of CARS. The government is going to offer everyone rebates to help purchase more energy-efficient appliances. As described on Yahoo! Finance, “A $300 million cash-for-clunkers-type federal program to boost sales of energy-efficient home appliances provides a glimmer of hope for beleaguered makers of washing machines and dishwashers…Beginning late this fall, the program authorizes rebates of $50 to $200 for purchases of high-efficiency household appliances. Only appliances covered by the Energy Star seal will qualify. The money is part of the broader economic stimulus bill passed earlier this year. Unlike the clunkers auto program, consumers won’t have to trade in their old appliances. ‘These rebates will help families make the transition to more efficient appliances, making purchases that will directly stimulate the economy,’ Energy Secretary Steven Chu said in a statement announcing the plan.”

How nice to have the government taking care of us. For a growing number of Americans, it’s getting so that whenever they get in their car, or open the fridge, they will warmly think of the benevolent government that helped pay for it all. But look at it another way—this could cause some people to assume larger levels of debt in order to purchase these goods through government programs. This may give a short term boost to the product makers, but it will be detrimental to consumers’ financial health.

Americans are aware, by now, of the need to be energy-efficient. We shouldn’t need the government to make product choices for us. Besides, we’re still waiting on the thousands of jobs that the Obama administration was going to create. He campaigned on the idea that Americans would be put to work rebuilding our crumbling infrastructure. But now, he wants us to buy a new fridge. Some of us might do so, if we had good-paying jobs.