Patriotic Wisdom

Most everyone in the country has heard of the Cash for Clunkers program. The media has been talking about how wonderful it’s been for boosting Automobile sales. Sometimes they’ve even been honest enough to mention that most of the cars sold from this program, would have been sold anyway, they’ve just sold sooner. So far, though, I have not seen one person speak up to tell Americans what this program really is.

Don’t think I’m talking about some tinfoil hat, Government conspiracy thing here. It’s not some hidden agenda either, Barack Obama himself told you about it during the campaign last fall. Remember his words to Joe the Plumber? “I just want to spread the wealth around.” Well, that’s what the Cash for Clunkers program did, it spread your wealth. What? You didn’t know you were wealthy? Are you going to argue with the President of the United States?

Think about it this way. Millions of American workers have lost their jobs this year. Many more have had their hours and/or pay drastically cut. Are you in one of these groups? If so, you paid your taxes in April for earnings in 2008. Those taxes were used to fund the Cash for Clunkers program. Every time a car was sold under that program, a discount of up to $4500.00 was provided by you. Being unemployed or underemployed means you probably couldn’t qualify for a new car loan. Your neighbors, in a better financial condition than you, bought a new car and you paid for as much as 25% of the cost of their new car.

Bless your heart, aren’t you magnanimous. Your blood, sweat and toil just covered up to 1/4 the cost of your neighbors new car. You thought “spread the wealth” was like Robin Hood taking from the rich and giving to the poor. Now you know that it really means take from those that have some and give it to others, even if they have more. Obama told you what he intended to do, you just assumed he meant something different. You remember what happens when you ass-u-me don’t you?

Giving a tax rebate to taxpayers, to spend as they see fit, is free market capitalism. Programs like Cash for Clunkers represent Socialism at its’ finest, or worst, depending on your view. If you had paid attention you would’ve seen this coming. Obama wrote about it in his book “Dreams from My Father” when he talked about the Socialists and Communists he hung around with in his childhood and college. In fact, he said in college “I chose my friends carefully … The foreign students… The Marxist professors and structural feminists…”. This is the “change we can believe in” he promised. If you disagree with it, maybe you’ll pay more attention and do your homework before you vote next time.