"Cash For Clunkers" Still Screwing the Working Man

Barack's chickens are coming home...to roost!

Ed Morrissey points to a story that, quite frankly, should surprise no one:

Car buyers on average paid $1,800 more for a used vehicle in July than they paid a year ago at this time, according to Edmunds.com data. That’s a 10.3 percent increase, bringing the average cost of a 3-year-old vehicle to $19,248. The price of a Cadillac Escalade spiked nearly 36 percent. “A lack of confidence in the economy is driving more people to used cars, putting upward pricing pressure on a limited supply of vehicles,” said Joe Spina, a senior analyst for Edmunds.

Let me see...the basic law of supply and demand says that if the demand remains the same or higher, and the supply diminishes, and more dollars chase fewer goods, the price will go up. Let's see a show of hands... how many of you didn't already know that? Anyone? Anyone?? Beuller? Beuller??

If the average man or woman on the street can figure this out, why couldn't the Smartest Men on the Planet™ (according to them) figure it out?

New car sales weren't really increased because of the program. Any increases were just sales that would have been deferred for a few months. It was a subsidy for the wealthy or upper middle class who could afford to purchase new vehicles in spite of looming poor economic times. And any pretense of "saving the environment" was negated by the popularity of vehicles like the Ford F-150.

And now, the poorer among us are going to pay the price for Barack's Folly. They either will be priced out of the market and be forced to drive older, less fuel efficient cars and trucks (Kiss Mother Gaia goodbye!)or pay a higher percentage of their limited incomes on transportation.

Gosh! If only someone could have seen it coming! Barack Obama and the Hummingbird Feeder of Doom
(Okay. Virtually anyone with a brain capable of balancing a checkbook saw it coming!)

More at Hot Air

Cross posted at Left Coast Rebel, Lady Cincinnatus, Say Anything