ANOTHER CONGRESSIONAL WINNER

I'm joking, of course.

In a story reported by FoxNews.com, it seems the Cash for Clunkers program has hit another pothole. http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/08/16/auto-dealers-paid-just-percent-clunkers-claims-congressman-says/?test=latestnews

Rep. Joe Sestak (D-PA), in a letter to President Obama, points to the fact that only 2% of participating auto dealers have received reimbursement, with fully four out of five applications having been "rejected for minor oversight".

Car dealers, needless to say, are rather irate and are beginning to voice their discontent.

All told, Congress approved $3 billion for the program. 338,659 requests have been submitted.

Quite a large operation, yes?

Congress, in all of their wisdom, has assigned all of 225 people to handle the paperwork. Rep. Sestak is calling for 1,000 processors be assigned to handle the claims.

Governmental inefficiency is nothing new, of course, but the "Just throw money at it" attitude lately is getting really old. Throwing money at a problem just makes it an expensive problem. All we ask is that somebody please COME UP WITH A PLAN before you fund something!! For Heaven's sake, it's just common sense!

This could potentially have a major impact on dealerships. The longer it takes to process the paperwork, the more rejections there are, the harder the dealerships are hit. Layoffs may ensue, as well as closings. The program has failed again.

But that seems to be par for the course, lately.