By all accounts, the cash for clunkers program has been a huge success. Never mind the fact that auto dealerships want nothing to do with the bureaucratic red tape and if at all possible will steer a customer toward conventional financing. The fact of the matter is that it has been a real boost to the economy.

So who really has benefited from this program?

• Some consumers, who traded up from old gas guzzlers to spiffy new fuel-efficient models,
• Auto dealers, who were able to dump inventory and pay their financiers,
• Banks, who all of a sudden, had some new auto loan volume, with up to $4,500 down-payments,
• Auto companies, especially Ford, Toyota, Honda and Nissan, who led the pack in sales. Conspicuously absent from the list were the beneficiaries of the government’s bailout program, General Motors and Chrysler. The car companies were also able to unload a bunch of inventory,
• Unions, who conceivably will be called back to work to replace all of that sold inventory,
• Steel manufacturers, such as Nucor, who will be able to buy cheap scrap steel and turn it into something usable,
• The green movement, because these new cars will be spitting out fewer greenhouse gas emissions,
• And the biggest winner of all, the Obama Administration, who was able to satisfy a number of constuencies and supporters, namely, the unions, the green folks, and the car companies they now run (GM and Chrysler). In the process, the President will be able to boast how this will boost the nation’s Gross Domestic Product and single-handedly pull us out of recession.

With so many winners, how can there be any losers? Of course, [...]

So, this morning comes a note from “Think Progress”…. a website which contributes to neither thought, nor progress…

The article whines about a report from The Politico. Says the amazingly accurately initialed TP:

This morning, Politico reported that Democratic members of Congress are increasingly being harassed by “angry, sign-carrying mobs and disruptive behavior” at local town halls. For example, in one incident, right-wing protesters surrounded Rep. Tim Bishop (D-NY) and forced police officers to have to escort him to his car for safety.

This growing phenomenon is often [...]

You have never seen a majority party more desperate to take advantage of its position of power, knowing that their days are probably numbered. Democrats in your state have probably already tried:

• Giving in to Unions with Prevailing Wage and Fair Share
• Giving in to Populist attempts to circumvent the Constitution
• Giving in to attempts to minimize the value of the family by elevating gay unions as marriage
• Giving in to solutions lacking real problems, such as Worker’s Compensation Physician’s Choice
• Giving in to their lust for spending, a long-term need for greed that feeds a push to raise taxes… yes, your state government is probably trying right now to raise your taxes!

If you don’t believe all this, just look to Iowa. Smack dab in the middle of the country, normally expected to be a follower, Iowa politicians (that is, the Democratic majority party in the Iowa General Assembly) have been trying their darnedest to do all of these things.

Iowans are watching this year. Very closely. Republicans are taking a strong stand on these and other issues, and some of the more conservative Democrats are also helping stem the tide despite the strong-arming of party leaders. Keeping these [...]

As I’ve been listening to and contemplating the whole discussion around “spreading the wealth”, it’s occurred to me that when the wealth is being spread, there’s more than just wealth that gets spread.

That’s right, the poverty gets spread too.

Of course, calling it “spreading the poverty” might seem too severe, but here’s the thing: people have poverty, wealth, or something in between. If you spread one, you spread it all.

My preference now is to think of it as “spreading the mediocrity”. As we discussed in the past, providing equal access to economic resources (“spreading the wealth”, or “wealth redistribution”) is going to lead to a society that is motivated to meet the status quo, to do just enough to get by, to even lower itself to ensure that there is just enough work to either[...]

It’s been an interesting week so far as reaction to the whole Joe The Plumber escapade has heightened people’s awareness of Barack Obama’s agenda.

For the sake of full disclosure, and ensuring people don’t accuse me of taking his words out of context, you can see the full transcript of the conversation between Obama and Joe here. I’m going to focus on one sentence that Obama said:

I think when you spread the wealth around, it’s good for everybody.

One can argue a hundred different opinions on this topic, and there’s been a lot of comments around how this is a Socialist agenda (and many consider this to be pretty obvious). However, the new argument from the Left is that there’s nothing new here that make Obama’s plans more Socialist than we are today. Or more Socialist than we have been for nearly 100 years. I received an email

Well, it’s official.  Barack Obama is now the first African American (am I supposed to still say that, or am I supposed to say “black” now?  I can’t get this Political Correctness down right it seems) to be nominated by a major party for President, as long as you don’t include Warren Harding, Thomas Jefferson, [...]

From the GateWay Pundit: About BitHead BitHead runs BitsBlog and is an occasional guest writer for The Conservative Reader. You can email BitHead at feedback@florack.us. This special Swamp Stomper Article is cross-posted from BitsBlog. New information reveals that House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was indirectly sending messages to the FARC. The Marxist Revolutionary Armed Forces of [...]