The story:
The popular “cash-for-clunkers” program is boosting U.S. auto sales and manufacturing but is also slashing donations to charities that rely on gifts of cars to fund social programs, charity officials say.
Volunteers of America and other charities that receive tens of thousands of cars each year said such donations have quickly fallen up to 12 percent — and fear a 25 percent drop eventually, or over $100 million — as owners rush to trade gas guzzlers for new fuel-efficient models while federal rebates last.
“We started seeing it right away in July” when the program began, said Jim Hartman, vice president of vehicle donations at Volunteers of America, a nationwide charity. “It varies by market, but there’s been an 11 to 12 percent drop compared with last year.”
“The cars I’m seeing cashed in as clunkers, like older SUVs, are absolutely the typical donation to us,” he said.
Now, why didn’t Obama and his Democrats not see this coming? Because you can’t run the show from DC – its impossible. What we’ve got here is what happens when government steps in – because no one in government can possibly know all that is going on, any government action, even the most well-intentioned, is almost certain to have a baleful effect somewhere. In this case here, its crushing some charities and, of course, making used cars more scarce for poor Americans.
We can’t pick the winners and losers – the only thing we can do is help the losers to bear their burden. But it is beyond our power to figure out just who should get what from whom…we don’t know who should pay and who should benefit and we’re almost certain to punish and reward the wrong people.
Perhaps now some of you liberals will start thinking about things.
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