Saturday, August 1, 2009

Another $2 billion for clunkers?

I understand the idea behind the program is to get people to get rid of their gas-guzzling vehicles and start driving more fuel efficient ones so that we aren't using as much gasoline and therefore dependent as much on oil, foreign and domestic. I get it. It's a nice idea. But do I really want my tax dollars paying for people to buy new cars? I don't EVER buy new cars. They would depreciate dramatically as soon as I drive them off the lot. Also, I don't have enough money saved up to buy a brand new car -- I can only afford used. And since I'm not willing to take out a loan to purchase a depreciating asset then this cash for clunkers program will not benefit me at all. But the more I think about it, the less I mind it benefitting others with my tax money. That's because it actually is a good idea...but I'm sad that those perfectly good vehicles (even though the gov't calls them clunkers) will be destroyed instead of available on the used car market. But the bigger problem that I have with this program is the question of "where is the extra money coming from"? What budget cut is being made to account for the EXTRA $2 billion that congress allocated for it? Or do they think they can just print money whenever they want?