The repository of one hard-boiled egg from the south suburbs of Milwaukee, Wisconsin (and the occassional guest-blogger). The ramblings within may or may not offend, shock and awe you, but they are what I (or my guest-bloggers) think.
With 4 1/2 months left in 2009, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reports that the “over 753,000” jobless claims received by Department of Workforce Development exceeded the 738,352 jobless claims received in all of 2008.
Snap question – what are the two differences between 2008 and 2009? Hint; it is not a recession, as the article points out that it “started” in December 2007.
Remember Bud Light’s “Real Men of Genius” commercials? Doug Ross put together a version featuring Congressman John Murtha (D-PA), and you actually have your choice of places to look at it. Since Doug is part of Hot Air’s Greenroom, you can either look at it over at Doug Ross @ Journal or Hot Air Greenroom.
I can’t do this justice by excerpting, and I don’t feel like lifting the entire thing. So go, read.
It’s been far too long since I’ve gone to the mailbag. In fact, it’s been so long, the advice being sought would have been ignored. Oh well; I may as well run with it anyway.
Letter #1:
Dear Egg,
I’m having a lot of fun rehabbing my shoulder with a bunch of high-schoolers, and I made my first goal of avoiding all the two-a-days of the NFL training camp. I still have the urge to stick it in the eye of Wile E. Thompson (mud-spelled-backwards), and I think I found the perfect situation. There’s a certain team that wears purple whose best quarterback isn’t half as good as I was with the bum shoulder, and they’re still waving $10 million in front of my face after I told them I didn’t want any two-a-days. Should I jump?
-Hoppin’ in Hattiesburg
Dear Hoppin’,
Get your ass back on the tractor and enjoy the fact that you’re still able to break the fingers of those high-schoolers. The half of those up here that really didn’t mind your stay in New York will get entirely pissed off if you go to the hated dome on the far side of the Mississippi, and somehow I doubt that too many of that team’s fans will be all that thrilled that you got out of the two-a-days.
Seriously; you’re almost 40, and the fact that you had to have the surgery on that shoulder proves you don’t heal as quickly as you used to. I don’t care that the Vikings play half their games indoors; you’ve been fading badly at the end of each of the last couple seasons.
I would just hate to see things end for you the way they ended for Joe Theismann.
-Egg
Letter #2:
Dear Egg,
I’m scared shitless becuase the sheepl…er, people are turning against ObamaCare, and there’s still a couple weeks before I can return to the safety of the Beltway. Worse, I waited too long to ask the SEIU to provide “hands-on security” at my townhalls. What do I do?
-Running for the Hill (Captiol, that is)
Dear Runing:
Grow a pair and get out there like Paul Ryan and Ron Kind.. If you actually head out into the district, you’d find that, while many of us vehemently disagree with ObamaCare, we’re quite civil about it. Just ask Kind.
Oh, and leave the union thugs at home; they only cause trouble.
-Egg
Letter #3
Dear Egg,
A person whose job I want is about to announce he won’t be seeking another term. I desperately want to lose the first word of my title, but I’m afraid he won’t actually leave early enough to give me a leg up in the competition to replace him on a full-term basis.
Did I mention that I despise him because he has done absolutely nothing for me?
-Madtown Junior Partner
Dear Junior Partner,
Patience is a valued commodity. At the very least, let the fireball contract before you go sniffing around the carcass.
If, like a moth, you just can’t ignore the flames, don’t compound the damage by wasting taxpayer dollars on your obsession.
-Egg
That’s all the time we have for this installment of Ask Egg. If you need off-the-wall advice that will save your hide, just let me know before you do something stupid.
(H/T – JiangxiDad)
I usually don’t do two of these in a week, but it’s not every day that we hear of East Coast shale. Investor’s Business Daily reports that New York Governor David Patterson (yes, he is a Dem) wants to go get the natural gas contained in the Marcellus Shale formation. This formation, which covers the souther portion of New York, the western part of Pennsylvania, almost the entirety of West Virginia, the eastern portion of Ohio, and portions of neighboring states, is estimated to hold as much as 1,300 trillion cubic feet of natural gas, or 65 years’ worth of domestic natural gas production.
Naturally, the envirowhackos that want to prevent this exploitation are whining that the method that would be used to get the natural gas, fracking, uses a lot of water, and could damage the aquifers that supply New York City with drinking water. IBD explodes both halves of that, pointing out that fracking has already been done in the area with no aquifer damage, and that fracking requires less water than ethanol production.
I echo IBD’s call to Gov. Patterson – “Drill, Patterson, drill.”
(H/T for the concept – Jessi Olson – H/T for the article – Carol Platt Liebau)
Long-term reader of this blog may remember a weekly series that I borrowed from Jessi Olson called “Drill Here, Drill Now Tuesday” in response to the ludicrously-high gas prices of last summer. We both called for increased domestic oil drilling.
The prices may not be quite as bad this summer, but it’s not for a lack of trying by the Obama administration. At every turn, from refusing to explore the possibility of offshore drilling off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to a rescinding of existing permits to tap the oil shale out west, they have tried to squeeze the life out of the domestic oil industry. In fact, the Department of the Interior attempted to take a court-ordered ban of new drilling in Alaska and have that apply nationwide, only to be told by the court that it only applied to Alaska.
Meanwhile, The Wall Street Journal reports that the U.S. Export-Import Bank has issued a $2 billion “preliminary committment” letter to Brazilian state-owned Petrobras so it can exploit the Tupi oil field. I have to wonder whether that is merely because it isn’t in American waters, it involves a state-owned enterprise, or both.
Revisions/extensions (4:36 pm 8/18/2009) – Ed Morrissey dug up a Bloomberg piece from Friday on The Left’s Moneybag George Soros changing to a higher-dividend position in Petrobras. Do remember that The Chicago Way involves rewarding one’s benefactors.
How much do you want to bet that Gov. Jim Doyle doesn’t take RPW chair Reince Priebus up on his challenge issued in the following press release?
MADISON – Following Governor Doyle’s official announcement that he will not seek reelection in 2010, Republican Party of Wisconsin Chairman Reince Priebus issued the following statement:
“Governor Doyle’s decision not to seek a third term can be attributed to many factors, but self-imposed term limits isn’t one of them.
Low approval ratings and a budget mess to clean up, on top of embarrassing stories such as an illegal legal counsel and a no-bid train contract likely helped convince Governor Doyle that Wisconsin voters have had enough of his failed policies.
If Governor Doyle really believed that all governors should be limited to two terms in office, then why was he raising campaign cash during the past two years? In his press conference this morning, he mentioned he and Jessica believed he would be a two-term governor. In that case, Governor Doyle should donate all of the campaign money he’s raised during his second term to charity, and I am calling on him to do just that.”
That was fast – the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel is reporting that Lieutenant Governor Barbara Lawton will throw her hat into the Democratic gubernatorial primary, while Rep. Paul Ryan will not throw his hat into the Republican gubernatorial primary.
I don’t buy this statement from Lawton’s camp for a second considering the news came out less than 1 1/2 hours after Gov. Jim Doyle announced he would not seek a third term – “Today is Gov. Doyle’s day and the lieutenant governor wishes him well.” I would think that one would at least let the fireball start contracting before announcing, “The lieutenant governor intends to run for governor and she will have more to say about that in the near future.” Then again, there is no love lost between Doyle and Lawton.
Meanwhile, Rep Ron Kind (D-La Crosse) was more succinct in his statement – “Since Governor Doyle’s decision has become public, people from around the state have contacted me and urged me to run for Governor. I thank them for their support and I am considering it. In the weeks to come I will make my decision.”
As expected (and frankly, predicted by me this morning), Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Janesville) issued a statement saying that he had no interest in running for governor in 2010. That tracks with the last question I asked him at the state GOP convention regarding a possible Senate run; he’s just too happy in the House right now.
My thanks to WTMJ-AM for posting the following statement from President Barack Obama issued in the wake of Gov. Jim Doyle’s non-reelection announcement:
Jim Doyle is a true friend and a tireless public servant. From the Peace Corps to Attorney General and then as Governor, he has demonstrated a commitment to helping those in need and a passion for fighting for what’s right. His tough and fair leadership enabled him to work across the aisle to strengthen education and spur economic recovery.
Jim’s unwavering dedication and his love for Wisconsin are evident in his 25 years of dedicated service to the state and the people of Wisconsin are lucky to have him as governor.
Doyle was mercurial and unwilling to reach across party lines, and we were very unlucky to have been stuck with him.
Now that the non-candidacy of Gov. Jim Doyle is (all-but-)official (pending just a statement of non-candidacy filed with the Government Accountability Board), it’s time to ask when he will actually give up the office. Somehow, I doubt that he will stick around all the way until 1/3/2011, when the term is actually up.
When will Jim Doyle depart the governor's mansion for the last time?
Up to 1 answer(s) was/were allowed
Total Voters: 32
Loading ...Kevin runs through the winners and losers in the wake of Doyle’s announcement that he is not running for a third term. He proves he is an honest broker by including himself as one of the big losers in the “Those Who Though Doyle Was Running” category. Yes, I do have to put myself there too – I said the moment that he line-item-vetoed the Milwaukee Transit Taxing Authority out of the DemoBudget, he was running.
Looking back at it, that was his last, desperate gasp at trying to save his 2010 chances. Doyle absolutely, positively needed Milwaukee County by a big margin, just like every other Democrat.
What was Trolley Tommy doing driving to the State Fair when there was cheap and convenient mass transit available to him?
Before some lefty decides to go off half-cocked, allow me to answer:
– Tom Barrett lives in the Washington Heights neighborhood (for you out-of-towners, it’s a very nice neighborhood west of the Stadium Freeway (US-41) between Vilet and North Avenues). Assuming everybody gathered at his house, the best transit option would be Route 76 (specifically, the one that goes to Southridge via 76th St.).
– That trip involves a 10-minute walk to 60th St, a bus ride to 76th and Greenfield, and an 8-minute walk into the fair. Given Barrett did not park on the Fairgrounds, I doubt walking would have been a problem.
– I don’t know the ages of his daughters or his niece, so I do not know whether they qualify for the $1 one-way trip given to those under 12 years. I do know that he and his sister would have been charged $2 for a one-way trip, so that would be $8 just for the two of them. Depending on the ages of the children, the total cost would be between $14 and $20.
– Speaking of parking, I don’t know whether Barrett availed himself of the lawn parking services that many of the residents around the Fairgrounds offer. If memory serves, they typically charge between $5-$10, with the higher amounts closer to the Fairgrounds. In fact, parking on the Fairgrounds is $10 during the Fair.
In short, Barrett made the economical decision that driving himself, his sister, two of his daughters and his niece to the Fair would be cheaper than taking public transit. I’ll let you draw your own conclusions.
File this dispatch from the MacIver Institute under T for “Told you so!” The takeaway:
Polling done by others showed Governor Doyle’s approval and re-elect numbers plummeted lower and lower each month after his Budget address in February. Our poll showed him with a lead over both of his prospective GOP challengers this spring, but foretold what would would happen if the Governor chose spending and taxing over belt tightening.
With the predicted Wisconsin voter reaction now a reality, Governor Doyle is poised to bow out, rather than face their wrath at the polls.
As our polling showed, it didn’t have to come to this.
The question now is: Will other elected officials in Madison learn from his mistakes?
They also throw in a flashback to the final state budget that ought to scare the bejeebers out of the rest of the field as well – $12.1 billion of bad ($3.63 billion of new spending, $2.05 billion in new taxes, $3.58 billion of borrowing, $1.50 billion in allowable local property tax hikes, and $2.05 billion in structural deficit). While it most-affects Lieutenant Governor Barbara Lawton and the Legislative prospective candidates, it also doesn’t bode well for noted fee-hiker Milwaukee mayor Tom Barrett or noted federal tax-hiker Ron Kind.
While I don’t keep up with much from the Washington Post, I do follow Chris Cillizza’s The Fix. He picked up on the news from the Politico over the weekend, and I do have to give a couple of commenters a inside-the-cheese perspective. Since I’m not about to register to comment over there, I have to do it here.
For mark_in_austin, who wonders how Kathleen Falk could be considered a serious contender, I first recommend this morning’s hot read from Christian Schneider. I further point out that she has failed in two of three statewide elections – the 2002 Democratic gubernatorial primary and the 2006 AG general election (she did, however, knock off a scandal-ridden incumbent who dared to push just a little bit into the shady dealings of Doyle). The second loss is the only statewide/Congressional office that flipped from the Democrats to the Republicans in the 2006 election cycle.
For JayPen, who wonders what will happen to Doyle’s $2 million war chest, it will most-likely be wound down slowly. If I’m reading the appropriate statutes right (Chapter 11), a bit over $40,000 per cycle can go to an individual gubernatorial campaign, with lesser amounts going to lower statewide and local campaigns. The moneys could also be returned to the donors, or donated to a charitable organization or the common school fund.
(H/T – The blatantly-ripped-off Charlie Sykes)
Christian Schneider, one of the true professional political handicappers, handicaps the race to replace Gov. Jim Doyle on the Democratic side of the ticket. He introduces a new name to the mix; Senate Democratic Leader Russ Decker:
Through the miracle of modern technology, I was able to actually record Russ Decker’s brain waves regarding his decision on whether to run for Governor:
“So I’ve been busting my tail for the people in the state senate for 20 years, and some kook like Barb Lawton is actually mentioned as a more viable candidate for governor than I am? I’m the freaking Senate Majority Leader for Christ’s sake! I’m the second most important Democrat in state government – and as much as I’d love to run for Dave Obey’s congressional seat when he retires, everyone knows that bearded skeleton is only leaving Congress feet first. He’ll probably serve until he’s 132.
But what if people start figuring out that my fingerprints are all over this most recent disastrous budget? Aren’t I culpable for the huge tax increases and future deficits this budget creates? Are voters really going to elect someone that’s saddled with all the same baggage that Jim Doyle carries around?
And how is it that Pizza Hut keeps coming up with new pizzas to sell us as ‘specials,’ when they’re all essentially the same ingredients?”
(Sorry, I didn’t turn off the thought transcriber machine in time.)
Verdict:
RUSS DECKER GOT MORE GRAVY THAN PEOPLE THINK
Bonus coverage from the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel includes news that I’ve been fearing; the Thompson gang,
including Tommy himself and former aide Bill McCoshen, are taking a second look at running for governor. Further, they speculate with no comment from the respective campaigns that Attorney General J.B. Van Hollen and Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Janesville) would jump in. While Van Hollen might try to prove that A.G. stands for “Aspiring to be Governor”, I strongly doubt that Ryan would bolt from the House.
They also have a run-down on available money for the various Democratic challengers:
One of the bad things about going on the road is sometimes I miss important things. Milwaukee mayor Tom Barrett was beaten by a violent and vicious thug (hey lefties; don’t take my word for it; take Milwaukee police chief Ed Flynn’s) with a lengthy police record by the name of Anthony J. Peters when he broke up a domestic dispute. When Barrett and his family happened upon the scene while walking to his car after attending the Wisconsin State Fair, he asked his sister to take his daughters away from the scene and attempted to calm Peters. When Barrett took out his cell phone, Peters attacked with a lead pipe, leaving Barrett lying in a pool of blood with a broken hand. Barrett’s niece, who stayed at the scene, dialed 911 on her phone, and the West Allis Police Department responded quickly.
I offer my prayers for a quick and full recovery for Barrett.
Some people are wondering why Barrett didn’t have a police security detail with him. While the mayor of Milwaukee is entitled to one, and Barrett does use one when he performs official duties, Barrett typically does not use one when he goes out as a private citizen.
In case you’ve been in a cave all weekend, Gov. Jim Doyle shocked the part of the world that follows Wisconsin politics by letting slip the news that he would not be running for re-election. After getting scooped, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel popped in with a few more details:
Meanwhile, the right side of Wisconsin politics hasn’t been silent:
So, the $16 million question is, “What now?” On the Democratic side, a lot depends on whether Doyle stays in Wisconsin until September 2010. In one of his updates, Kevin Binversie picked up on a WisPolitics item that Doyle does plan on sticking around. That would essentially eliminate any “incumbency” factor for Lawton, who Doyle reportedly doesn’t exactly like. It would also leave the primary wide open, though I note that Democrats aren’t exactly shy about throwing out extraordinarily-weak incumbents in the primary (see Peg Lautenschlager).
Continuing with the Lawton thoughts, whether or not she is governor after an early Doyle departure, she would be tied to a very-unpopular administration. She also is extremely liberal, which explains why she won WisPolitics’ straw poll of who the attendees at the Democratic convention would like to see run if Doyle did not. Further, “acting” governors don’t exactly do well in their “affirmation” elections (ask Scott McCallum).
I honestly don’t know much about Rep. Kind, but he’s been trying to position himself as a “moderate”. If memory serves, a while back Recess Supervisor noted that besides appearing moderate, he is very telegenic and well-spoken. There are a couple of negatives, one paradoxically introduced by Doyle and his hacks on the former State Elections Board. First, he does have a rather extensive federal record. Second, that federal campaign war chest, if the Mark Green example isn’t “conveniently” ignored by the 100% Doyle-handpicked Government Accountability Board, can’t exactly be used.
The third big name is Milwaukee mayor Tom Barrett. He failed in the 2002 gubernatorial primary, and hasn’t exactly distinguished himself in Milwaukee. Beyond that, there’s state Senator Jon Erpenbach, Dane County executive and multiple-time statewide loser Kathleen Falk, and a thin bench.
On the Republican side, that news throws out the emerging plan by both Walker and Neumann to focus almost all their energy on Doyle. It does, however, also eliminate someone who was able to turn a similar situation at this point in 2005 into a successful re-election bid, as well as someone who had $2 million already salted away into the campaign war-chest. Speaking of money, since it is expected that the Democrats would also have a hotly-contested primary, the money race will essentially reset after the primaries.
Unlike Recess Supervisor, I do expect more high-profile names, especially outside the Milwaukee area, to throw their hats in the ring. Neumann has far more in common with Walker than he does with the prototypical outstate moderate Republican.
(H/T – Kevin Binversie – Twitter/blog)
I hate to run away from a good breakout session at RightOnline, but something HUGE popped up back at home. Politico is reporting that Jim Doyle will not be running for re-election in 2010. Jonathan Martin believes that Doyle is still in line for an early exit courtesy an Obama appointment, which would make Lieutenant Governor Barbara Lawton the de-facto incumbent. Others in the Cheddarsphere, like Josh Schroeder and the Recess Supervisor, think that Congressman Ron Kind would be the front-runner.
We now return you to your regularly-scheduled weekend.
Revisions/extensions (4:55 pm 8/15/2009) – I briefly spoke with The Wall Street Journal’s John Fund regarding this, and he had a couple of observations:
– Doyle’s exit would make things a bit harder for the Republicans as they wouldn’t be able to run against him.
– As for the timing, it makes sense to do it now rather than in, say, May 2010 (the filing period is July), because it would give the Dems a bit of time to actually recover.
I also added a link to Kevin’s blog post in addition to his Tweet. It is interesting that he really scooped everybody back in Wisconsin.
I’ll have more thoughts either tomorrow or Monday.
Yes, I missed the morning flight through piss-poor planning and preparation, which always results in piss-poor performance. However, that means I get to read Ed Morrissey’s latest column for American Issues Project, a historical look at why health care is not a “right”:
Rights cannot be confiscatory in a society that respects the individual right to property. That’s why none of the enumerated rights in the Constitution involve confiscation. Americans have the right to free speech, but they do not have the right to demand publication in a newspaper, nor do they have the right to demand that other people listen when they speak. The right to free expression of religion does not involve occupying someone else’s church and using it to your own ends. You have the right to keep and bear arms, but you do not have the right to demand free or publicly financed weaponry. All of those examples involve confiscating someone else’s property or services, whether done through the government or by force individually.
That brings us to the notion of the “right” to health care. As human beings, we want to see people succeed to the point where they can feed, clothe, and care for themselves independently, as that establishes true personal freedom. However, none of us have the right to confiscate the services of a doctor or nurse without their consent, and without their ability to set a price for their time and expertise. We don’t have the right to walk into a grocery story to demand apples when we’re hungry, either, although we should have access to the market without bias when we can properly compensate its owner for the goods.
I can’t put it any better.
Fresh from a week of canoeing, fishing and camping in the Boundary Waters (outfitting done, as always, by Tuscarora Outfitters, I’m off to Pittsburgh for the RightOnline conference, hopefully pick up a new trick or two, and run into a heap of old and not-so-old friends. I think, I hope, I pray I got enough sleep up in Minnesota this past week because I’m running on no sleep since about 7 am yesterday.
(H/T – DrewM)
It looks like I got off the water just in time. The Hill is reporting that President Obama is going to try his hand at fishing in Montana.
Speaking of being FISHY, Jim Lynch has a nice little graphic for those of us who don’t want socialized medicine…
I’m back and sifting through a lot of stuff I missed this past week before I’m off to Pittsburgh. Short version of the canoe trip:
– Decent weather; not too hot until yesterday, not a lot of rain
– Very slow walleye fishing (just enough for a couple dinners)
– Incredible smallmouth fishing; 6 of them 19″ or over, several more at least 18, and a heap of fat ones.
Semi-regular comms will resume Monday.
…and given the lack of posts from me, you probably didn’t, I’m out canoeing the wilds of the Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness. I leave you in the capable hands of Shoebox and all the guest-bloggers over on your left (or in the Authors section if you’re viewing this on mobile).
I will technically be back in comms sometime late on the 13th, but I have a very-short turnaround to a weekend trip to Pittsburgh. Most-likely, you won’t see much of me until Monday. However, I do invite you to enjoy the rest of the gang propping me up (as usual).
I wanted to finish Michelle Malkin’s latest book, Culture of Corruption, before I went off canoeing. Instead, various things intruded, and I made it to Ray LaHood, Earmark Man. Still, I highly recommend you heading over to Amazon or your favorite local bookstore, and ordering it while I’m on vacation.
She chronicles many of the players in the most-corrupt beginning of an administration in recent memory, starting with describing Obama Nominee Withdrawal Syndrome, going through the Bitter Half, blasting through Plugs, skewering the members of the Cabinet that didn’t withdraw, dances through the czars (or more properly, the commissars), runs down the Mad Money Men, hunts the union label, pops some ObamACORN, and closes with some fresher Clinton stuff.
Some random quotes to whet your appetite:
- (Following a list of those “Achievatrons” who withdrew their nominations after problems) – And those were just some of the bodies thrown under the bus before the 100-day mark. Heckuvajob, Obama vetters!
- You never get a second chance to make a first post-inaugural impression. Less than three weeks into his first 100 days, Barack Obama left indelible marks on his nascent presidency: the marks of incompetence and hubris.
- (A subtitle in the chapter on “The other Michelle”) – Earmarks and Edifice Complex
- (A ditty to the tune of something from Sesame Street at the end of that chapter) – Oh, these are cronies in Michelle and Barry’s neighborhood.
They’re the people that they met (and did business with, and socialized with, and traded favors with) each day,…. (note; we need to get The Ventilators back together)- Like the Naked Emperor of Hope and Change in the Oval Office, the Court Jester of Reform in the vice president’s office has no clothes.
There will be a test when I finally get back in normal comms (just kidding, I think). I could cheat and speed-read in the couple hours I’ll be conscious between the canoe trip and RightOnline, but I definitely will be taking it with me to Pittsburgh.
Yesterday, Shoebox explored the early drain of the “Cash for Clunkers” program. Allow me to take it a slightly-different direction.
Last week, Edmunds estimated that car/light truck sales for July would be roughly 950,000. Given that the “Cash for Clunkers” program was designed to get 250,000 new cars into the hands of those that were driving “clunkers”, does anybody really believe that one out of every four car sales this month involves a vehicle traded in surrendered to the government shredding machine that would both qualify for the program and make economic sense?
Related to that, I wonder how many people are going to flip their new cars and buy something they really want. Prime example – you’re ready to move up from a 1996 Honda Passport EX 4WD (private-party value of $1,817, trade-in value of $1,194; all numbers from Edmunds and, other than a mileage adjustment for the Aveo5 trade-in, unadjusted) for a 2004 Honda Pilot EX (private-party value of $12,886, dealer-retail value of $13,914). Normally, if you’d go through the dealer process, you’d have to come up with, before tax/title/etc., $12,730.
Thanks to the “Cash for Clunkers” deal, there’s a money-saving way to do that. First, you walk into a Chevrolet dealer, divest yourself of the Passport, and pick up a new 2009 Chevrolet Aveo5 1LT (MSRP $14,820, “True-Market Value” price of $14,315, less an existing $1,000 rebate makes it about $13,315 before the $4,500 “Cash for Clunkers” credit). That means, again before tax/title/etc. (which is a bit more this time in most states because they add more fees to new-car transactions), you’re ponying up $8,815. You then drive to the used-car dealer with that 2004 Honda Pilot EX, give your $11,010 for trading in the Aveo and $2,904 in cash (plus tax/title again) to the dealer, and drive out with the Pilot. Thanks to the bipartisan Party-In-Government and us the suck…er, taxpayers, you’re paying roughly $1,000 less for that two-step transaction than you would otherwise have paid. It just gets worse for the taxpayer if you’re willing to do the second part yourself rather than going through the dealer.
Exit question that I’m sure nobody in the House bothered to ask before they authorized another $2 billion to be thrown down this hole – what’s going to happen in a few months when a lot of these people stop making their monthly payments? After all, there is a reason why they were driving “clunkers” rather than buying a nice $10,000 used car – they couldn’t afford even that.
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