Time to buy an old clunker

Congress is considering bills that will raise the value of old clunker cars. One plan by Sen. Dianne Feinstein, D-Calif and Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, would offer vouchers ranging from $2000 to $4500 for an old gas guzzler. U.S. Representative Betty Sutton, D-Ohio, has a similar proposal offering between $3000 and $5000. Her's has a clever name, "Consumer Assistance to Recycle and Save (CARS)". It requires that the newer car be assembled in the USA. To nobody's surprise, her plan is backed by the big-three automakers and the UAW.

The goal sounds laudable, to get gas hogs (worse than 18MPG) off the road and increase demand for newer, more fuel-efficient cars. But there would seem to be some issues with these plans. They reward people who made environmentally harmful decisions to drive gas hogs. Just like the $40 off coupons on digital converter boxes that "ran out", scammers could buy fleets of old clunkers to sell off to those considering a new purchase, using up the money. And the whole "greeness" aspect is very debateable: as one commenter named Brn asked, "How 'green' is it to consume significant resources building a new car?"

The bills are "estimated" to cost a couple of billion dollars a year. Not too bad all things considered - a "billion" seems like chump change nowadays. Work out the kinks, and I could go for it. But I prefer a simpler, non-subsidized and "free market" solution: raise the federal gasoline tax. (And I'm generally anti-tax!) Announce that each year for the next 8 years the tax per gallon will increase by say, 20 cents a year, with some modification or "outs" available based on the price of a barrel of oil. Taxpayers will gain money, not spend it on scammers and fuel wasters, and you'll see those clunkers disappear.