Cash for Clunkers: Another Debt Trap?

[scorpio]

I've been hearing so much about this cash from clunkers program, like its the greatest thing since sliced bread.
One of my business associates recently bought a new car with this program, a foreign car.
She received a $4500 credit and bought a car that only gets 2 miles a gallon more than her old car!
WTF :?: Like that's gonna save the planet.:lol:

My wife and I went to the chevy dealer to have our van worked on. It's a small dealership in the outback of northern california.
We asked the salesman about the Cash for Clunkers Program. He said that the small dealers can't really participate in the program
because there is so much paperwork and there must be a junkyard nearby that is willing to participate as well.
 He said there are 150 pages of rules sent to the dealers. A small dealer does not have the staff
To deal with that kind of regulation.
Also, he said that the dealer is responsible to destroy the old engine by draining it of all fruids and letting it run
at 2500 rpm until it seizes! Then, the dealer has to tow it to the junkyard.
 If there isn't a junkyard nearby that is participating in the CFC program, then it is cost prohibitive for the dealer.
 
Here is my take on it:

1) Another program to exclude the small dealers and help the large dealers. Destroy small business!

2) another step towards communism (or whatever ism you want to call it. A state controlled economy)

3) A new way to trap people into debt.
 Sure you get a big discount on your car, but how many people are paying in cash?
Very few. Buy that new car you can't afford!
 Most people are having to make payments.
That's no problem....Until you lose your job!

A nation of debt slaves.

Any observations from out there in TIU land?....

[Rockclimber]

I have nothing to add to this other than to say that I noticed that many people who have taken the bait are in fact buying new cars. And as I understand it you can only buy certain cars at I can only guess, already inflated prices. I think you are absolutely spot on-another debt trap indeed and additionally it will have an impact on small businesses.

[§N9sh2bj]

more chits (USD), evidence of value, sucked out and put somewhere they don't belong.

With people like this, who needs bad leaders?

[abduLMaria]

yeah, debt trap pretty much says it.

i have a 1998 Ford truck, which i drive about 3000 miles a year.  i'm keeping the miles down because i don't want to get a new truck - this one is supposed to last for good.

i think the part about destroying the old cars is the stupidest.  why not give it to someone who needs a car ?

i think the main purpose of the program is to stimulate new car sales.  it's just a wierd way of going about it.  also, junkyards don't want the 'clunkers' because they usually make money on the engine.  it takes a lot of work to remove an engine.  now they have to do all that work, and the only compensation is what they get paid for the scrap.

maybe it's God's plan so that Russians can take their turn laughing at Americans.

[Rockclimber]

Devvy KIdd's take on it:

CASH FOR CLUNKERS: MORE STEALING, MORE DEBT
 http://www.newswithviews.com/Devvy/kidd460.htm

By: Devvy
July 27, 2009
© 2009 - NewsWithViews.com

The outlaws who make up the US Congress (excluding Ron Paul) have been looting the people's purse for decades. The restraints and limitations placed upon them by Art. 1., Sec. 8, of the supreme law of the land, the U.S. Constitution, has been ignored since LBJ took office and began the big push towards weaning Americans onto government dependency for everything. What better way to keep the masses controlled and broke.

The "Cash for Clunkers" program had ZERO constitutional basis as a "bill of expenditure" originating in the House of Representatives. Of course, that doesn't matter to Comrade Pelosi and the rest of her communist colleagues; the same applies to the Senate. Let's start calling these people what they are based on their voting record and ideology.

I called my house member last week and asked if the useless, constitutionally challenged, Randy Neugebauer (R-TX), would vote for another $2 BILLION dollars for this insanity. The young man I spoke with said no. I explained to him none of this is legal. His response was, and I'm paraphrasing: Well, it may be a blessing in disguise for 2010 to help the Republicans retake Congress. I said good bye and gently hung up the phone.

From the time the Republicans took control of Congress (January 1995- November 2006), they outspent the Democrats previous forty years of stealing us blind. Not a single unconstitutional cabinet was eliminated. They didn't lift a finger to get us out of the communist UN, stop the rape of we the people by stopping all illegal payments to the World Bank, BIS, foreign central banks and foreign aid. Not a single step was taken to get us out of these unconstitutional, destructive trade treaties which have killed off MILLIONS of good paying jobs: NAFTA, CAFTA, WTO. The young man in Neugebauer's office is a product of brain washing. His brain has been washed of common sense and solid facts in favor of blind loyalty to his political party.

The original theft for this 'cash for clunkers' was a whopping ONE BILLION DOLLARS. In six days, it was almost gone. The entire program, as well as government computers, went into full blown chaos and so everything stopped while vile individuals like Chuckie Schumer (D-NY) shouted, "Billions more!" The U.S. Constitution be damned.

Let me tell you in raw terms just what this program will cost you, your children and grand children.

First and foremost: The outlaws in Congress, and signed off by an usurper president, simply decided to steal the fruits of your labor, my daughter's and the man next door to give to someone else. The U.S. Constitution does NOT authorize this type of expenditure and no amount of massaging the 'welfare clause' will make it legal. This is the equivalent of a thief coming into your home, holding a gun to your head and saying, "Hand over the cash." After you do this, the thief then tells you to take back the money, but he is going to charge you interest on the money he stole from you an hour ago. He will enforce these terms by keeping the gun to your head. In real time the gun is the IRS to collect higher and higher taxes.

If you purchased a vehicle using this program, you have stolen my the fruits of my daughter's labor. She will be taxed even more to pay for your new car. When she needed to trade in her old one two years ago, she didn't ask you to make the down payment. Nor would she, because my daughter understands it's not your responsibility, yet you have no problem fleecing her earnings to pay for your new car. The sad truth is you don't realize that you will also pay for that 'cash for clunkers' many times over.

If you purchased a vehicle using this program, you have further condemned your children to a life of heavy, progressive taxation (Second plank, Communist Manifesto) to pay for this heist. Purchasing a car is not a "human right" or a constitutional right. It is simply a business transaction that is YOUR responsibility, not mine. Yes, times are tough, but you don't throw out the law of the land to patch things up in the short term. You throw out the scoundrels who are killing us with unconstitutional spending and continued destruction of our most important job sectors.

If you purchased a vehicle using this program, or if you are a dealer who has also participated in stealing the fruits of our labor and used the http://www.cars.gov web site, you might be shocked to learn that if you clicked on the "Privacy Statement and Terms" and accepted (few read the fine print), the federal government now owns your computer and all data inside it. Do take five minutes to watch the proof in this video.


Advertisement

Second. There is NO money in the U.S. Treasury. Few Americans even understand the difference between the debt and the deficit (learn here), but apparently they don't care because they took this 'cash for clunkers' without giving a single thought to how the program would be funded. As I said earlier, the original amount of this heist was one billion. By Friday, the outlaws in Congress had upped it another two billion. Total: Three billion "dollars."

As I write this, the national debt is $11.6 TRILLION dollars and rising; see here. That means the people's treasury is $11.6 TRILLION dollars overdrawn. That means the $3 BILLION dollars for this unconstitutional 'cash for clunkers' has to be borrowed from the privately owned "Federal" Reserve Banking System and the interest will cost nearly double the original price tag.

Congressman Wright Patman, Congressional Record, September 29, 1941, pgs 7582, 7583

"Now, take the Panama Canal bonds. They amounted to a little less than $50,000,000 - $49,500,000. By the time they are paid the government will have paid $75,000,000 in interest in bonds of less than $50,000,000. So the government is paying out $125,000,000 to obtain the use of $49,500,000. That is the way it has worked all along...

"Now, I believe the system should be changed. The Constitution of the United States does not give the banks the power to create money. The Constitution says that Congress shall have the power to create money, but now under our system we will sell bonds to commercial banks and obtain credit from those banks. We do not receive money for the bonds...

"I believe the time will come when people will demand that this be changed. I believe the time will come in this country when they will actually blame you and me and everyone else connected with this Congress to sit idly by and permit such an idiotic system to continue. I have talked to the Secretary of the Treasury and members of the Federal Reserve Board and other people who are supposed to know about the money system of our country.

"They know this can be done easily and conveniently, and it will save money; but their one reply is, "It will have a bad psychological effect." Well, I do not think it would have a bad psychological effect to save the people 50 per cent of their national debt. I do not think it would have a bad psychological effect to save the people over a billion dollars a year in interest. I do not think it would. It certainly would have a bad effect on the people who are collecting interest on the Government's money."

So, you see? Not only did you steal the fruits of my sister's labor and your own children by accepting this illegal 'cash for clunkers,' you are a participant in driving up the national debt even higher. If this sounds harsh, it's long past time the American people take the time to learn and understand how these systems work. It's also long past time the American people learn and understand that our Constitution does not authorize anyone to simply take the fruits of someone else's labor against their will just because they want the money. Or, because these outlaws in Congress say it's okay.



Third. Some 250,000 vehicles have been purchased which will do nothing for the economy past next week. No jobs are created because the existing inventory is what's being sold and there is a ton of it. Some paper gets pushed around, but in the end, the continued massive unemployment and all the other factors pushing us further into a depression are still there. Peter Schiff, another brilliant economist, summed up the 'cash for clunkers' poison:



"The recently passed "cash for clunkers" program (currently on-hold, as it ran out of funding in one week) is a perfect example of how government policy can make the economy worse. By incentivizing Americans to destroy fully paid-for cars so they can go deeper into debt buying brand new ones, the government weakens an already crippled economy. The last thing we want to do is subsidize Americans to go deeper into debt by buying more stuff. Don't they realize that is precisely the behavior that got us into this mess?"

Enjoy that new ride, America, because it is a very costly one.

Links:

1 - Foreclosures rise 15% in first half of 2009 (July 16, 2009)
2 - Unemployment Checks For Millions Delayed As States Struggle (July 24, 2009)
3 - White House: Recession Near End! (August 2, 2009)
4 - 500,000 Will Exhaust Unemployment Benefits by September, 1.5 Million by Year-end
5 - The Dark Years Are Here
6 - Greenspan: Clunkers Cash popular because economy on its way back up! (Aug 2, 2009)

1 - Thomas Paine video: Falsehoods and Propaganda

1 - Causes of Depression Yet To Be Addressed
2 - Stimulus Jobs In Oregon -- Last Only One Week!
3 - Five more banks shut down by FDIC; 69 this year
4 - BIG Texas bank ready to fail
5 - FDIC Insurance Fund - It Doesn't Actually Exist
6 - After $182B Bailout AIG On Verge Of Collapse...Again
7 - Unemployment rates rise in 90% of metro areas
8 - Dead banks walking
9 - Tarp banks award billions in bonuses
10 - Fed Chairman 'Forgets' Banks He Loaned Half Trillion $
11 - More bodies go unclaimed as families can't afford funeral costs
12 - What economy? There's nothing left