The Obama folks plan to end their Cash for Clunkers program Monday -- and good thing, since it was rap idly falling into chaos.See also Saturday's Washington Times:
By contrast, if Congress passes President Obama's plan for health-care reform, Americans may be stuck with it forever. No matter how much of a "clunker" it turns out to be.
And, indeed, judging by the car-subsidy program, ObamaCare may well be just that -- if not worse.
Sure, the clunker plan always sounded good: Free money toward a new car -- who'd complain about that?
Well, for starters, the money comes from taxpayers. So it's not exactly "free."
And the cash doesn't seem to be reaching the car dealers, for whom the program was supposed to drum up business.
This week, frustrated New York dealers put the pedal to the metal -- in a race to exit the program. About half the 425 members of the Greater New York Automobile Dealers Association say they dropped out.
Why? Because Washington's bureaucrats were able to send out only 2 percent of the money it owes.
"It's an administrative nightmare," said Mark Schienberg, the association's president.
Now consider health care.
The car program involved all of just $3 billion. Health care is a $2.4 trillion business, about 800 times bigger.
The U.S. Transportation Department, billions of dollars behind in paying "cash-for-clunkers" rebates, has hired private contractors and solicited volunteers from the Federal Aviation Administration and its own executive ranks to work overtime to clear the backlog.Again, adding government bureaucracy can't streamline healthcare.
(via Power Line)
3 comments:
"By contrast, if Congress passes President Obama's plan for health-care reform, Americans may be stuck with it forever. No matter how much of a "clunker" it turns out to be."
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From the analysis at Gormogons
http://www.gormogons.com/
pp 201-300 "... the bill fails to reform healthcare as much as it directly aims to rewrite portions of both the Tax Reform Act of 1986 and the Social Security Act —making it impossible to undo this bill later without a complete overhaul of two massive aspects to American legislation."
They summarize: "Reading this bill in its entirely leads to some inescapable conclusions: the supporters and authors of this bill clearly do not understand its contents, nor do they understand all possible interpretations and implications. Serious lacks of checks and balances allow the Secretary of HHS nearly total control over every health decision made, and seemingly ridiculous charges made by critics can indeed be substantiated by the low-quality writing that comprises this bill. ... "
I like their final statement which includes: "... this bill is very much like President Obama himself. Rushed through without proper review, and containing an unfocused blend of various liberal and radical ideas, the bill promises extensive reform, but ultimately cannot provide specifics beyond trivial process and procedure. The contents are pro-lawyer but anti-doctor, misinformed on how business works beyond the abuse of buzzwords, but is fully incorporative of labor union interests. The bill, like the President, raises a specter of increasing fundamental central control coupled with an élitist dismissal for consequences; in the end, its scattered attempt to be a panacea to the nth degree produces a framework that is merely a framework: it is a blank slate, onto which the supporter pins his own hopes and goals, without anything within justifying that faith."
I urge any interested person to read the section summaries at their website.
> The car program involved all of just $3 billion. Health care is a $2.4 trillion business, about 800 times bigger.
No, no, no -- that will make it easier to smooth things out.
If you think the above is vaguely true then... wanna buy some land? If you want to get a 500% return in only three months, I guarantee it!!
good link, A_N_M!
Obama campaigned as a foreign policy radical and economic realist. He's turned out the opposite.
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