This week, President Obama nominated Princeton economist Alan Krueger to replace Austan Goolsbee as his chairman of the president’s Council of Economic Advisers. Prior to this nomination, Krueger’s chief public policy claim to fame was the Obama administration’s “Cash for Clunkers.” That program put the already cash strapped US government on the hook for buying thousands of cars off the hands of Americans, as trade-ins for newer cars. The program was supposed to jump start the US auto industry and stimulate the economy.
It didn’t. And what happened to all those cars the government bought?
As of a few months ago and according to Google Maps to the present, they’re rotting away in historic Bush Stadium in Indianapolis, IN. The historic stadium has been a Negro league stadium, a minor league stadium, and a race track during its lifetime. Placed on the National Register of Historic Places a while back to ensure its survival, the stadium has fallen into disuse. That is, until Krueger’s brainchild, “Cash for Clunkers” came along. The government bought cars, had no place to put them and no system in place to part them out, sell them, destroy them, or otherwise get rid of them.
So the Obama administration rented out Bush Stadium and filled it up with cars. Hundreds of objects, all containing parts that can be used in cars still on the road, recycled, sold, etc, just sit there rotting away. But the government had a dual agenda in C4C: Stimulate the economy and get lower mileage cars off the road while replacing them with newer, higher mileage cars. With that second part of its agenda in place, it couldn’t very well sell the cars despite the value that many of them held at the time of sale.
The point here really isn’t to lament the misuse of Bush Stadium, but to note that once again the federal government leaped into an idea without any planning for the obvious outcome, and with an agenda that determined that the program would end up being wasteful. “Cash for Clunkers” didn’t work, and the taxpayer not only was forced to pay to help someone else buy a new car, we’re all now stuck with these old cars, off the road but also out of the aftermarket industry.
This is the work of the president’s new economic adviser.
The program also drove up the price of used cars. So folks who can’t afford to buy a new car must now pay more for a used car, while the well-off Yuppies traded their SUV for a Prius via this misguided government subsidy.
Anyone remember what was in the cocktail of chemicals the government required be added to the engines of these cars so they could never run again? Seems to me that stuff must be leaking from some of these cars…
This needs to hit the MSM quickly – or at least Fox and Drudge.
There may have been some folks who traded in an SUV on a Prius, but most of the transactions had only a minor affect on upgrading the fuel economy of the nation’s fleet. IIRC, the most common cash-for-clunkers transaction was a used Ford F150 pickup traded in on a new Ford F150 pickup. The increased fuel efficiency of that transaction is negligible at best.
The resemblance of that picture to the opening shots of WALL-E is disturbing in the extreme!
It just go to show that we need to take back our great country and kick them all out of office Democratic and Republican. It the same old story and the middle class gets to pay for it all. Come on we the people or is it we the rich?
They used sodium silcate to destroy the engine. Not sure if there are any long term health or environmental effects of that substance.
You also can’t take any drivetrain components off a traded in C4C. So if you really could use a transmission, axle, or even a wheel bearing for your current vehicle, tough luck buddy.
At the Port of Tampa, there is a very efficient process where a junked vehicle has any useful parts removed, then the car sits in a field for 30 or so days, so that if someone wants something else off the car it is available. The cars are then crushed and shredded. Last I heard we ship the metals extracted to Mexico to make Chrysler products.
That picture of all those cars at that stadium is a shame. I’ll bet every one of those cars have parts that could help working people keep their current whip on the road.
The Left is so hypocritical and illogical. We get their “The Story of Stuff” (http://www.storyofstuff.com/) saying planned obsolescence is the problem of our industry and then they go and end-of-life cars that could last years more. Certainly someone did a study of the waste of time, money and energy it took to incapacitate the cars.
I’d say we make Bush Stadium (oh, the irony!) a national monument to values of the Left.
I found the Bush Stadium ironic as well… now they can blame this on him, as well!
Where are Krueger and Obama going to find a stadium big enough to hold the US economy?
I notice that this potential chemical brownfield is less than 500 feet from the banks of the White River. Any of the untold pages of EPA’s envrionmental laws, regulations and “findings” being violated here? I’m sure Eric Holder’s DOJ is right on top of it.
I am old enough to remember when we were taught in elementary school that (1)this nation had a “government of the people, by the people, and for the people” and (2)who coined that phrase.
I fear “this nation” is perilously close to perishing from the earth.
I do not doubt that anarchy and chaos is the goal of the obama administration.
they are evil little minded people driven by envy and hate.
the democrats are the party of envy and hate …plus an abundance of greed
Looking at the parking lot outside the stadium – look how many people are presumably employed here! That’s more jobs than the entire stimulus produced!!