How we ”saved” money with cash for clunkers is a good indicator of how we will “save” money and lower the deficit.
Thanks to my cousin Dick for forwarding this to me.
Think of it this way:
A clunker that travels 12,000 miles a year at 15 mpg uses 800 gallons of gas
a year.
A vehicle that travels 12,000 miles a year at 25 mpg uses 480 gallons of gas
a year.
So, the average Cash for Clunkers transaction will reduce US gasoline
consumption by 320 gallons per year.
They claim to have replaced 700,000 vehicles so that’s 224 million gallons
saved per year.
That equates to a bit over 5 million barrels of oil.
5 million barrels is about 5 hours worth of US consumption.
More importantly, 5 million barrels of oil at $70 per barrel costs about
$350 million dollars.
So, the government paid $3 Billion of our tax dollars to save $350 million.
We spent $8.57 for every dollar we saved.
I’m pretty sure they will do a great job with our health care, though.