cash for clunkers suspended

cash for clunkers suspended
Cash for Clunkers has not been suspended yet and lawmakers are racing around trying to find the funds to keep it open. Reports surfaced last night that cash for clunkers suspension was on the cards today. For the program has burnt through its initial allocation of funds in under a week rather than the over three months the stimulus program was originally intended to last.

Efforts are afoot in the House to find another $2 billion to keep cash for clunkers running although it does have to be said, at current rates that would mean the program might last another two weeks. The problem lawmakers have is that today is the last day the House sits before the summer break and if they're not able to craft the legislation today it will mean the end of the program. It is expected that funds will be diverted from renewable energy guarantee schemes.

The Senate will still be sitting next week so it is possible, although not certain, that the extension to cash for clunkers will go through. It was the Senate that cut the initial allocation of funds from $4 billion to $1 billion in the first place.

At least one politician has a sense of humor about this. Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) pointed out that times were hard all over and that Pilgrim's Pride, a large poultry producer, had just filed for bankruptcy. "Where's their 'cash for cluckers' program?" he said.

Whether everyone's sense of humor will continue to be apparent depends upon what people say about the cash for clunkers program running out of money in this manner. It's certainly possible that opponents of national health care will make the point: if something as simple as providing money off cars goes three times budget in only a week, what's the implications for that trillion dollars some want to spend on health care?