Bachus Voted For “Cash for Clunkers” Bill

Spencer Bachus VOTED for the CARS Bill that was tucked into a military spending bill that just passed Congress and was signed by President Obama. This a piece of legislation meant to help get gas guzzlers off U.S. roads and replace them with new, more efficient vehicles. Called the Consumer Assistance Recycle and Save Act of 2009, or more commonly, “Cash for Clunkers,” the $1 billion program will provide a voucher of up to $4,500 (effectively just knocking that much off the price tag - dealers will get electronic payments from the feds) to help offset the cost of new car purchases or leases over the next five months.

The version that passed Congress today represents a marginal win for makers and backers of more fuel-efficient cars. It beat out a competing cash-for-clunkers proposal that wouldn’t have taken fuel efficiency into account at all in the criteria for trade-in vouchers, but the version that passed today still has only modest MPG requirements. The government will in theory offer up to $3,500, for example, to a driver who trades in (at a participating dealer) a 16 MPG Hummer for a brand new SUV that gets a dismal 18 MPG.

Common sense will tell you that it is a stretch to believe that anyone driving around in a car that’s worth less than $4,500 can suddenly-in the middle of Great Recession-afford a new car. There’s a reason they’re driving around in a clunker, and no $4,500 discount is really going to do much to change that.

The bill provides $1 billion for the auto sales program from July through November and the Congressional Budget Office expects that with a total of $4 billion, about 1 million new vehicles could be purchased. The government is expected to implement the program by early August.

Automakers and their unions have lobbied heavily for the incentives to help the auto industry boost sales and stabilize General Motors Corp. and Chrysler Group LLC, which have received billions of dollars for government-led bankruptcies. In May, U.S. auto sales were 34 percent lower than a year ago and the industry expects to sell less than 10 million vehicles in the U.S. in 2009, compared to more than 16 million in 2007.

Thank you Spencer Bachus for another tax increase and wasteful government spending. It would appear that Spencer Bachus is a RINO indeed - and his name should be changed to $pender Bachus.

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