James Doran says the instant success of America’s car scrappage scheme merely highlights the failures of the rest of Obama’s $787 billion economic stimulus package
America’s tortured love affair with the gas-guzzler is finally drawing to a close thanks to the Obama administration’s so-called ‘Cash for Clunkers’ scheme. By promising anyone with a clapped-out old motor as much as $4,500 so long as they spend the rebate on a shiny new fuel-efficient model, Obama has managed to do what a doubling of the price of petrol could not.
Cash for Clunkers was such a success when it launched in July that the initial $1 billion of taxpayers’ money devoted to the scheme ran out in a matter of days and a further $2 billion was hurriedly made available before Congress broke up for the holidays. In a little less than two weeks, so US government data shows, the programme led to the sale of 245,384 new vehicles.
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