Cash for Clunkers … what a great deal. So I thought I might trade in my aging Mercedes and get a real high gas mileage hybrid. I called my car dealer and asked a salesman, “What’s the deal on the clunkers program?” He said, “It’s a disaster. It’s a complete mess. We’ve got 22 cars we can’t deliver because of the paperwork. Dealers are going to face some devastation. We’ve had people come in and leave their car, taking a new car home. Then the government has disqualified them and we have to call them to return the cars. In the meantime, their cars have had a fluid put in them that seizes up the motors! We’ve put a complete hold on the program.”

So, how is the government doing in the auto business?

They fund a program for $1 billion that’s supposed to last a couple months and it’s over in a few days, replete with problems. And the program allows a trade up for a whopping improvement of 2 miles per gallon. That’s to save the planet? What about the energy and materials it took to make the clunker and the new soon-to-be-clunker being bought?

Now there’s $2 billion more out there for taxpayers to fund so someone else can get a new car. I think it’s buying votes with cars and that a lot of people won’t be able to make the payments.

Cash for clunkers is not working. Will government-run health care do any better?

Jared Bristol, Hebron