I recently received a spam claiming persons accepting Cash for Clunkers got taken for a ride. It claimed automobile dealers raised the price of green vehicles they traded out by about $3000. Dealers had been discounting the cars because the free market wasn’t taking them, but raised the prices back to list when they had a guaranteed market. Furthermore, people who traded in clunkers will have to pay taxes on the free money the federal government gave them for doing so. Then, most paid sales taxes and registration fees for the new cars and will be paying interest on new loans. The author of the spam estimated each person receiving $4500 in free money from the federal program actually netted a loss of $3350. One could argue this was good for the automotive division of the federal government because auto dealers made an extra $3000 plus kickbacks on the typical sale.
This information is a few weeks old, but federal math also came under fire for errors detected in a report “from a government oversight board” claiming the president’s plan for blowing $787 billion in newly-printed money had already created 30,000 jobs. The report covered $16 billion in spending on 9000 government contracts. A brief review by the Associated Press disclosed jobs listed included:
• 3000 jobs that lasted no more than five weeks
• 2950 short-term jobs awarded by multiple contracts hiring the same people
• 129-3.9% COLA raises listed as jobs saved
• 280 students to be served through capital improvements
• jobs created through economic multiplier analysis.
The point is, obviously, the numbers associated with a $1 trillion federal healthcare program covering 95% of the population are unreliable.
