It sounds like a former Obama Administration official is changing his tune on two of the President’s early stimulus efforts. Austan Goolsbee, former chairman of President Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, says that in retrospect he would not have supported the Cash for Clunkers program or the home buyer tax credit. Politico reports: “Because we didn’t know if [economic recovery was] going to be short or long,” the Obama administration tried measures to address both scenarios, Goolsbee explained on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “If you look at Cash for Clunkers or the first home …
Congress is back, but before Members head home again to campaign, they have to first do what they do best: spend other people’s money. Today, Congress will vote on the Rural Energy Savings Program Act, H.R. 4785—a bill that would authorize $5 billion over five years for the Department of Energy’s Home Star loan program and the Department of Agriculture’s Rural Star program. The Home Star program, also known as “cash for caulkers,” provides low-interest loans for consumers to make energy efficiency improvements to their homes, while the Rural Star …
The White House hailed last year’s “cash for clunkers” program as a successful government initiative that stimulated the economy, particularly the ailing auto industry. It provided $3,500–$4,500 rebates to consumers who purchase more fuel efficient cars and trade in their old vehicles, which dealerships then destroyed. President Obama’s economic team said cash for clunkers lured consumers who would have bought a new car two to three years in the future into the immediate market. However, a new study from economists Amir Sufi of the University of Chicago and Atif Mian …
On Tuesday, the National Association of Realtors reported that July sales of existing homes fell by 27% from June of this year and by 25.5% compared to July 2009. This annual sales rate of 3.83 million homes was the lowest since NAR began keeping track of sales in 1999. Then yesterday, the Commerce Department reported that July sales of new homes fell 12.4% from June and by 32.4% compared to July 2009. This annual rate of 276,000 new units sold is the lowest since 1963, when government records were first …
This week The House of Representatives is set to vote on a, $6.6 billion home energy efficiency bill commonly referred to as “cash for caulkers.” The plan would give rebates to homeowners willing to green their homes by installing new windows and retrofitting homes energy efficient upgrades. The legislation, H.R. 5019, is being sold as a win for the economy, the planet and consumers. Its supporters of say it will create jobs and lower both greenhouse gas emissions and electric bills through less energy usage. But the old “If it’s …
As the economy sputters and falters the questions coming up time and again are: What should Obama do? What can Congress do? They’ve tried spending their way to prosperity and as today’s jobs numbers show, 3.5 million jobs lost since Obama took office and an unemployment rate that shot up to 10.2 percent is damning evidence, turning the propaganda ploy of arguing for 600,000 stimulus-created jobs into a brazen farce. They’ve tried to play Washington games with certain sectors and it didn’t work. Cash for clunkers gave car sales a …
This is not a new story from the Wall Street Journal, but certainly one worth noting: “We thought cash for clunkers was the ultimate waste of taxpayer money, but as usual we were too optimistic. Thanks to the federal tax credit to buy high-mileage cars that was part of President Obama’s stimulus plan, Uncle Sam is now paying Americans to buy that great necessity of modern life, the golf cart.
TIGGER: It’s not just a character from Winnie the Pooh. It also stands for the Department of Transportation’s Transit Investments for Greenhouse Gas and Energy Reduction or in other words: cash for buses. The DOT “has spent nearly half its $100 million grant budget to replace diesel buses with cleaner and more efficient hybrid-electric and fully electric models. Like Cash for Clunkers, these grants are intended to be dual-purposed: stimulate the economy and clean the environment.” And like cash for clunkers, it will most likely do neither. Although Secretary of …
What goes up must fall just as hard. Case in point: cash for clunkers: The dramatic decline in sales reported Thursday by the Big Three automakers suggested the extent to which the stimulus act has propped up the economy. The government’s wildly popular “Cash for Clunkers” program drove consumer spending to its highest level in eight years in August. But after it ended, so did the growth in auto sales. General Motors’ sales plunged 36 percent in September compared with August. Ford plummeted 37 percent. Chrysler dove 33 percent. Cash …
At a speech at a General Motors Assembly plant in Lordstown, Ohio, President Obama restated his regret for government interference in the auto industry claiming the decision was out of necessity rather than choice. In what many called a campaign-like speech, the President asserted: As I’ve said before, I didn’t run for president to manage auto companies. It wasn’t something on my to-do list. It wasn’t even something on my want-to-do list. I like driving cars — sometimes, you know, I can change a spark plug or change a tire, …
