Hundreds of car dealerships in New York are pulling out of the “Cash for Clunkers” program today citing fears that the government may not be able to properly reimburse them.
The program offers up to $4,500 dollars per vehicle for customers purchasing a more fuel efficient car or truck. However the dealerships must pay the rebates out of pocket, and then must wait to be reimbursed by the government. The program has been and administrative nightmare so far, the initial funding for the program was burned through in only 4 days.
Former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson wasn’t on Goldman Sachs’ payroll when the US government bailed out his former employer, but he may as well have been.
That’s the implication in a New York Times article, published Saturday, that shows President George W. Bush’s last treasury secretary, a former CEO of investment bank Goldman Sachs, had many conversations with the current CEO of Goldman during the week of Sept. 16, when the US government handed over $85 billion to rescue the troubled insurance giant AIG.
“Cash for Clunkers may have run out of cash, but America’s consumers haven’t run out of clunkers. We’re going to work with the Obama administration to keep this wildly successful program going until it reaches its goal of helping take 1 million gas guzzlers off the road”
