What Is This World Coming To?

Noted John Stossel at TownHall

The economic illiterates in Washington are so impressed with the “success” of Cash for Clunkers that they’re readying Cash for Clunker Appliances. The ludicrous “stimulus” bill gave $300 million to the Department of Energy to provide rebates for 10 types of appliances that have been rated energy efficient.

Before government extends Cash for Clunkers to more products, it might be a good idea to examine the original. The fact that Washington and the buyers who took advantage of Cash for Clunkers are gaga is hardly evidence that it was in the public interest.

According to most published reports, the Cash for Clunkers program ‘ran out of money’ — and somehow, managed to do so before it even paid off any of the dealers.

Fritz Hitchcock, who owns three Toyota dealerships and two BMW stores in Southern California, said he sold about 450 vehicles under the program and is owed almost $1.9 million in reimbursements. He stopped doing clunker deals Thursday night and has turned in all of his paperwork but has yet to receive any checks from the government. “We’ve got to see some money in the next two weeks,” he said. “We’ve got payrolls to meet.”

. . .

Each application takes about 20 minutes to file online, and about 80% are rejected and have to be resubmitted, Wood said. The Transportation Department website has had three major crashes since Friday, he said. On Monday, more than 2,000 dealers contacted the association complaining about problems submitting their applications.