Following up on my last post, the U.S. House voted today to infuse $2 billion into the so-called “Cash for Clunkers” program.
The program – which offers government rebates to consumers who trade in old cars or trucks – quickly ran out of money after just a few days of existence. That spurred Congress into pumping in more money to keep the program afloat.
The legislation passed today would shift money already allocated in the federal stimulus package to the rebate program. It still needs the approval of the U.S. Senate.
U.S. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer, R-St. Elizabeth, voted today against extending the program. Luetkemeyer spokesman Paul Sloca said that the first-term congressman voted against authorizing the program in the first place.
“Like many folks, Blaine was disturbed that this program blew through $1 billion in hard-earned taxpayer dollars in just one week and that the problem was revealed only 24 hours ago,” Sloca said in an e-mail. “If this is how the government handles taxpayer dollars on a program like this, you have to wonder how government is going to deal with something like health care.”
Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Missouri, provided mixed signals about whether she would support extending the program. She initially sent out a Twitter message expressing opposition to the idea. But she later said she would consider supporting a plan that used federal dollars that had already been appropriated.
UPDATE: Bond expressed fairly positive sentiments about the looming proposal in a statement.
“An extension paid for with unused stimulus dollars makes sense since this program seems to have worked better then the misnamed recovery act,” Bond said in an e-mailed statement.
Tags: blaine luetkemeyer, Cash for Clunkers, claire mccaskill, kit bondCategories: Business.
[...] off of voting against extending the so-called “Cash for Clunkers” program, U.S. Rep. Blaine Luetkemeyer is headed to Israel this [...]