Obamanomics
Cash for Clunkers…a Lesson

The Cash for Clunkers program is a big success. Well…sort of. Lots of cars were sold; lots of clunkers disabled by Uncle Sam. Another bail out of the auto industry accomplished! But, the program ran out of money so Congress voted to dump in another $2 billion before heading off on junkets and town hall meetings [which would you want to do as a Congressman?] during the August recess. There were other shortcomings…dealers not getting their money; people thinking they qualified who did not; the government web site crashing; cars taken out of circulation that could be used by charitable organizations; dealers running out of qualifying cars. Wow…unintended consequences that Congress did not think about.

Now, the lesson. If Congress cannot figure out how to run the Cash for Clunkers project, how are they going to do with health care? We keep hearing about how complex the health care issue is. And, some of the proposed bills exceed 1000 pages. Yikes! Cash for Clunkers was simple compared to this. Is the Congress the appropriate body to set up a complex system that manages 1/6th of the economy and touches the lives of every American? No one doubts there are issues to be addressed in health care. But, some adjustments can be made to correct inefficiencies and improve coverage without an entire makeover putting bureaucrats in charge of health care decisions for you and me. If you are tempted to think you want government involved with you health, remember Cash for Clunkers.