[red92s]

A few points:

• Nothing more than Obama trying to make the purchase of GM and Chrysler look smart by propping up their sales figures, while simultaneously creating an artificial increase in GDP for Democrats to brag about going into 2010 elections.
• "Automakers and their unions have lobbied heavily for the incentives to help the auto industry boost sales and stabilize General Motors Corp. and Chrysler Group LLC,". So after pretty much handing over an unfair portion of these companies to the UAW, we are now subsidizing the purchase of their products. Why? The UAW is a major Obama campaign contributor.
• What's the point in pushing this as an environmental issue when the materials, energy, and labor used by scrapping the old cars in favor of the new ones probably offsets a large chunk of the reduction in fuel consumption?
• Obama is preaching financial responsibility and restraint in spending for Americans, while encouraging them to take on additional consumer debt in the form of car loans.
• If you drive a "clunker" that would fall under this plan you probably A) can't afford anything nicer or B) can afford something nicer, but would rather spend your money on something else. Category B probably won't go buy a new car simply due to their financial habits. Category A might go buy a new car, even though they probably shouldn't.