And Another One Rides the Bus!

I was not aware that sunset last Friday marked the start of a Jewish period of silence. But it must have been for how else can we explain David Axelrod’s failure to shut up his boss.

There was Obama on Saturday in Grand Junction, Colorado still extolling the efficiency of FedEx and UPS while lampooning the United States Postal Service, the “Public Option”.

Later that day though, with Axelrod still in absentia one presumes, Obama saw some polling numbers and so by Saturday evening he was pulling that contentious option off the table.

Well, at that, the Left came unglued and you don’t have to take my word for it. Just go and take a look at “Democratic Underground” or “Daily Kos”. Ever keen to join the fray, Howard Dean chimed in saying that without the “Public Option” a change in this country’s health system was meaningless. I never thought this day would come but he’s right. Without that option there is no reform.

So now the battle lines are drawn. Will there be a public option or not? Obama certainly needs something. He needs to be able to stand there in the White House rose garden as he signs into law something, anything that has the words, “Healthcare Reform” somewhere in it.

He needs it for political reasons. He needs it for Obama reasons. He needs it for him! And we know by now, it’s all about him!

But, in the meantime, he’s stuck with a pissed off Left and a confused Right and they’re both in his own party. And for good reason which is why they want to have Republican support. They want someone else to blame.

Here’s another look at a similar problem and it involves the so-called “Cash for Clunkers” program.

Ostensibly it worked because all of a sudden car showrooms were stuffed with people. Well for a start it deserved to work because it was effectively a tax refund. A bad word for liberals because it smacks of Presidents Reagan and Bush and what is it about the Left that embraces feelings but abhors data and fact?

But again, there are a couple of lessons to be learned. For a start, “Cash for Clunkers” showed that this government, any government cannot run an efficient or profitable or cost-effective program. And let’s start with the one that heads up this paragraph where we quickly learn that for every $4500 promised to the buyer via the dealer, it really costs more than $6000 when we factor in the overhead in government administration,

Now, I understand overhead and so do most people but almost 50% is more than a little extreme.

As of today, Monday, August 17, 2009, less than 3% of the promised money has been paid to the dealerships who have handed over cars to their new owners. At least one major dealer in the Mid-West has already halted the program because he has not been reimbursed for the deals already done. And can you blame him or her?

This all started out as just a $1 Billion program; just $1 Billion. Then we find that it’s now 3 times that and a whole new bureaucracy has to be created to administer what was to be a temporary “green” effort and to provide a boost to Detroit.

Again, as of today, 54% of the vehicles sold will benefit the bottom line of Japan and South Korea and, just as a kicker; no model of General Motors appears in the top 10.

I’d like to present an honest question to Obama believers everywhere. If your leader and his employees cannot run an efficient organization to administer a $1 Billion program, what do you estimate the chances are for one that is at least 3 orders of magnitude greater, namely Healthcare?

If I were a betting man, which I'm not, I'd be very tempted to start a business to snatch cars from those in default on their loans. Let's face it, people were driving a "clunker" because that was all they could afford.

So give it a year or less ............

And the tow trucks will surely be rolling at dawn's early light.