An Obamanomic Clunker

The Foundry's Morning Bell: Cash for Clunkers, A Case Study in Why Obamanomics Will Fail, shows why micromanagement of the economy is doomed to fail. Does the use of government funds to enable people to trade in their older vehicles for newer models make sense? From the article:

Sens. Dianne Feinstein (D-CA) and Susan Collins (R-ME) are open to allocating more money for the program, but only if the rules are changed so that the program might actually do something for environment; because right now it is not. Edmunds.com auto analyst Jessica Caldwell explains why: “What you buy has to have an increase in fuel economy from what you traded in. But in some cases, that increase can be minimal. Owners of large pickup trucks like a Ford F150 only have to buy a replacement that increases efficiency by one mile per gallon. And they still get a $3,500 rebate. The environmental impact is negligible and the impact on national fuel demand and consumption is very small. The only real benefit in a like-for-like swap can be improved emissions standards on newer vehicles. Rather than discourage those people, they included them in this program.” Caldwell didn’t even mention the pollution costs of actually building a new car and the disposal of the old car, rather than just the pollution caused by driving the vehicle.

The environmental impact must be more than negligible if we transfer money from some Americans to others to enable them to drive newer vehicles. Emotional attachment to environmentalism leads to the type of expensive non-solutions we observe in the clunker program. We cannot afford playing with the economy and pretend environmental programs. Working Americans deserve more than this.