Congress Just Buying People Cars Now

Can I have a $4500 voucher for a new bicycle? It uses no fossil fuel at all. (I estimate that an 18-pound bike will cause me to consume one less banana per week, compared to my current 21-pound bike. This will save hundreds of bananas per decade.)

Cars? People still buy those things?<p>I wonder how much non-drivers' taxpayer money goes to subsidizing others' choices of transportation like this...

What we have here is a wasted opportunity.<p>This program could have required a 10 mpg improvement and could have been set up to require at least 28 mpg on the new vehicle, by using two different numbers, and it would still be very successful and have made the US less dependent on foreign oil imports. Oops.<p>Too much influence have the firms that make "campaign contributions".

This program is about keeping consumerism alive to benefit the economy, not about fuel efficiency, The idea of trading in clunkers for fuel efficient vehicles is a thin veil to the real goal of getting people to buy things from an industry who lobbied the government to give them a handout. Instead of Goldman Sachs and Bank of America, the robbers this time are car dealers.

I can't imagine it does <i>any</i> good for the environment, at least not until &#62;five years from now. Producing a car isn't exactly easy on the environment, and requiring people to buy <i>new</i> cars isn't going to help.

Congress... *siiiiiiiigh