Uncle Sam, Car Salesman?

Last night on my local 10 pm news, it was announced that the government's Cash for Clunkers program has been so successful that the Federal Government was going to end it early because it was nearly out of money. I was surprised at the fiscal restraint, but thought nothing more of it.

Then today, I read that the Congress quickly approved another 2 billion to keep the program going. So much for fiscal restraint!

This topic was all the rage on Rush Limbaugh's show today, so I was able to learn some things, admittedly anecdotal, from some of Rush's callers. But, much of what I learned seems to be confirmed by this article from the Wall Street Journal.

As a logical thinking person, I made the erroneous assumption that this program was relatively simple. I assumed that the government provided dealers with a list of cars that qualify, based on age, mileage and Miles Per Gallon (MPG). If you have a car on that list, you qualify for the Cash for Clunkers program.

But, with the government, nothing is ever simple. According to a car salesman who called in to Rush today, there is a website that the dealer has to go through. There they have to answer many questions about the candidate vehicle, and once they complete the questionnaire, they have to wait for the Federal Government to give approval or disapproval. So, this particular dealership had a backlog of 10 consumers waiting to hear the results, and it was a "small dealership". Once the dealer finally hears back, they can complete the deal.

While I applaud the fact that the government isn't just handing out money, the fact that a small dealership has a backlog of 10 consumers waiting to hear the results of their Cash for Clunkers quest is ridiculous! How hard would it have been for the Federal Government to put together a list of cars/trucks that qualify?!!! How much of the money allocated to this program is wasted on bureaucracy?

To me, the fact that the Federal Government can't even make a vehicle trade-in process simple proves that they aren't capable of successfully running anything. And these are the same people that some Americans want running our health care system? Can you imagine the backlog then?