Cash for clunkers - a good plan?

[enviralment]

It seems to me that this plan is getting attacked by repubs. for being ill-conceived (not enough money initially invested) and being attacked by climate change advocates and not doing enough to curb emissions. Yet, it is stimulating people to get old carbon emitters of the road while stimulating the economy. I think congress should invest more in this initiative. You?

[quiller4]

1. A very good plan--much like the German plan earlier this year.

It is one of the most effective kinds of stimulus there is.

[Eric J in MN]

2. What German plan? NT

NT

[JVS]

3. this one

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Scrappage_program#Germany

[Oregone]

10. Its sorta lot like this BC program that started a decade ago:

http://www.timescolonist.com/Scrap+Program+good/1865078/story.html

They get the money if they trade in for more fuel efficient cars OR a bike.

This is more environmental probably and less stimulus (if people actually go the bike route).

[ProdigalJunkMail]

4. I dislike the plan from the perspective

that it really is just funneling more tax money into corporations...and ones without so hot a track record at that. this plan props up the failed business models that these companies run under and offer no more than a short term fix and given the requirements of CARS it doesn't seem like it was geared toward climate change numbers much if at all...

sP

[Skink]

5. Right plan right time.

As for funding I watched Rumsfeld twice ask for a hundred billion supplemental outside of the Iraq budget. A needless war.

[Zywiec]

6. It would be if I could use it. Why not get all old cars off the road? n/t

[babylonsister]

7. It's a whole lot better than this...

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_mesg&forum=389&topic_id=6228686&mesg_id=6228686

Here is the Cash for Clunkers program that was in place during the Bush Administration. The bonus depreciation provisions put in place after 9/11 provided a 50% immediate tax deduction for the purchase of Large SUV’s. So when my boss purchased a $100,000 Range Rover he wrote off $50,000 on his taxes. Assuming a 35% federal tax bracket – this resulted in an immediate tax refund of $17,500 on the purchase of the Range Rover (even though the down payment may have been $10,000). $17,500 cash for the purchase of a 12 mpg Range Rover.

Now that’s “Cash for Clunkers” we can believe in.

[kentuck]

8. Only if it benefits the American car companies.

in my opinion.

[Oregone]

9. Its good stimulus

Its likely most autos being bought will be obsolete in 10 years anyway. :)

[scheming daemons]

11. "It only helps a LITTLE bit" seems to be the main argument against it from the left

Seems like kind of a stupid argument.

[DevonRex]

12. I love it. We got a Malibu Hybrid after trading in a Blazer that was

falling apart and only got 200 miles per tank.

[frazzled]

13. I got government cash for my clunker back in 2006

A $3,200 tax credit for buying a hybrid. We traded in our 12-year-old Camry for a new Prius (more than doubling our mileage and reducing our emissions by more than half). Of course, we had to wait a year to get that money, when we filed our tax returns for the previous year, but it was a great incentive.

Did anyone complain that there hadn't been enough money invested in that program (there wasn't). I don't think so.

Cash for clunkers is not entirely new.

[The2ndWheel]

14. Like everything else, it isn't big enough

Everyone needs a new and improved something. It should be a yearly thing, not just an emergency thing. If we stop stimulating the economy, then we eventually have to stimulate the economy anyway. We should have to get a new car every year. A new couch every year. A completely new house every year. More, more, more. Especially if you don't need anything new. If you're ok with what you have, you're not helping the economy, meaning you're helping put your neighbors out of their house, and taking food from their child's mouth. What we really need is collective greed, not individual greed.