From: SEMA Action Network
Date sent 12/29/2008 10:12:37 am
Subject: Urgent Action Alert: Oppose Federal Vehicle Scrappage Program
Oppose Federal “Cash for Clunkers” Program
Washington lawmakers are drafting a large economic stimulus package to help create jobs and rebuild infrastructure. They want to include a nationwide scrappage program which would give U.S. tax dollars to consumers who turn-in older cars to have them crushed, as a misguided attempt to spur new car sales. The lawmakers need to scrap this idea.
The stimulus package is being drafted right now. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) wants to introduce the bill on January 6 and have it approved by Congress by January 20, so that President Obama can sign it into law after he is inaugurated.
Contact House Speaker Nancy Pelosi IMMEDIATELY To Oppose Cash for Clunkers!
Talking Points
Oppose the Use of U.S. Taxpayer Dollars for Cash for Clunkers
• I am [calling/writing] to urge lawmakers not to include a “Cash for Clunkers” provision in the economic stimulus bill. Owners who turn in vehicles for crushing would receive a "minimal" payment to purchase a new car. This is a misguided attempt to spur car sales and claim that the country’s air quality or fleet fuel mileage is being improved.
• “Cash for Clunkers” programs threaten enthusiasts nationwide with the loss of valuable parts and parts-cars for repair, restoration, and customization projects. The programs also risk destroying classic, historic and special-interest vehicles, our American heritage.
• Cars turned in for scrappage often barely run, or are rarely-driven second or third vehicles that have a minimal impact on overall fuel economy or emissions.
• “Cash for Clunkers” programs will reduce the availability of affordable transportation and repair parts used by low-income drivers. It will also compete with the Salvation Army, the Purple Heart and other charities that rely on vehicle donations to raise money.
• “Cash for Clunkers” ignores better policy options. If Congress wants to act, support for repair and upgrade is a better choice and a win-win for consumers, dealers, manufacturers and repair shops. Significant emissions and fuel economy improvements can be achieved in older vehicles through relatively simple and inexpensive means: repaired/replaced exhaust systems, tune-ups, etc.
• We hope we can count on you to reject “Cash for Clunkers.” Thank you for your consideration on this very important matter.
Please send a quick note and/or a copy of your message to Speaker Pelosi to:
What an idiotic idea. Low-income people can turn in the 4 or 5 broken-down hoopties in their back yard and go buy some liquor with the paltry sum given them..
If I owned a junkyard, I'd be looking for all those titles about now.. There'll be some scamming in the works.
How much money are they honestly going to give for the cars? 3 cents per hundred pounds? Nothing close to replacement value or parts value I imagine. Just another way to trick ignorant people out of their assets. It's assinine.
With this program, people that can't aford a new car, much less manage the responsibility of a car payment, can take the $$ from the turn-in of their backyard heaps and go to the dealership and get a creative 10-year, 25% loan financing on a new car they can't afford, then default after they've trashed that one in a couple years.
I'm not advocating depriving low income peope of cars, in fact they already have cars they can afford. Urging them to turn them in for cash and go buy a new car is a ridiculous idea.
It sounds almost like a way for people to voluntarily tax themselves.
None of it makes any sense.
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GM has been doing something SORT of like this for years, ever since they got murdered in that exploding pick-up truck fuel tank deal. You know, the 73 to 87's with the outside the frame rail fuel tanks. My local dealership parts guys said the corporate doublespeak for the project was "punitive parts pricing" The goal was to make the parts so expensive, that repairs were cost prohibitive. So overnight the price of the fuel selector valve for the dual tank version went from $18 to $109. Fenders went from $95 to, well somewhere north of the North Pole. You get the idea. Did it take any of the potential lawsuits, er, i mean, trucks off the road? Sure, every insurance repair estimate suddenly made the truck a total loss. Did it create a market for a lot of cheap, crappy, tissue paper thin reproduction parts? Yeah, did that, too. Did it sell any new trucks for GM? Well, maybe some, but not to me, and apparently not nearly as many as GM needed to sell. These "cash-for-clunkers" schemes all use that "it'll save the environment from these dirty old cars" in the first sentence of the prospectus. What they overlook is the "big picture" statistics involved, like the cost to the environment of the raw materials to make the new car and such. Remember, these are the same politicians who mandate zero emission electric cars because they think that by moving the tailpipe from the cars in their neighborhood to the coal powerplant in someone else's neighboorhood two states away, is sound logic. It remains a puzzlement to me that ANY elected official ever gets re-elected. Now shall we discuss the outlawing of trans fat fried food and diet soda?
I think our folks in Washington are misguided. I would rather give them a bunch of rakes, shovels and trash bags so they can personally clean up our highways.
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OD_Coyote
1944 Willys MB
1945 Caterpillar D4 Dozer
1980 MEP-002A
1985 M103A3
1986 AM General M35A2C
Nancy Pelosi and her left-wing cronies are screwing things up for everyone. Next thing you know, they will just hand over the US government to the UN so the whole world can sit around the campfire and sing cum-by-ya.
I for one, don't like most of the new cars/trucks on the market. They are way over priced, overly complicated, and are less durable than the old military trucks. If they made simple trucks that were multi-fuel and didn't even need electricity to run, I might buy one.
Vehicle Scrappage Program
