Monday, April 26, 2010

Ganley campaign insists on brakes for clunkers

THE PLAIN DEALER'S Sabrina Eaton of the paper's Washington Bureau has opened a Pandora's box with today's piece on the business workings of Republican congressional candidates Tom Ganley and Jim Rinacci. While Ganley, the giant auto dealer who is on the ballot in the 13th District, has made his opposition to government programs a staple of his campaign, Eaton noted that his dealership took advantage of the Cash for Clunkers program with the sale of 934 cars worth $20.6 million. Here, the narrative gets a little sticky for Ganley because after the GOP primary, which he is quite likely to win, he will be running against U.S. Rep. Betty Sutton, the Democratic congresswoman credited with setting up the clunkers program.

Likewise, Rinacci, a conservative whose many business enterprises include a Chevrolet dealership, sold only 40 cars worth $754.167, Eaton reported. In this context with Ganley, Rinacci's sales could have qualified for a flea market.

It is interesting to hear the negative spin that Ganley's campaign chairman put on the trade-in program.

"The program," Jeff Longstreth told Eaton, "was, at its basic level, an unnecessary intrusion of government into the private business sector," adding that it merely helped car buyers and not the dealers. "It was unnecessary federal spending that is indicative of the current administration's policy of spend, spend, spend."

But as Sutton's campaign manager Julie Sweet replied: "If he is now saying it's a bad program, he's trying to sell you something, and it's not a car."

I doubt that you will see many clunker traders lining up at the dealers' counters to return their ill-gotten machines as their patriotic duty. I also doubt that Sutton will take Ganley at his doleful word on the program by returning her Distinguished Service Award from the Ohio Automobile Dealers Association for her work on the clunkers program.

4 comments:

ReaganFan84 said...

I think most people would agree that "cash for clunkers" and similar government programs do not make much economic sense. The idea that government spending can create demand out of thin air is a bit ridiculous. Not to mention the sheer insanity of destroying perfectly good vehicles that were traded in.

But hey, the unions in Detroit loved "Cash for Clunkers".....and isn't that what was most important?

Grumpy Abe said...

Do I detect a don't-even-let-them-eat-cake attitude toward the the autoworkers who would be losing their jobs if the industry shut down? By the way, GM is looking a little brighter these days. Must be a leftover from Bush's compassionate conservatisn,

fargo said...

The only jobs program that Republicans support are those that help Haliburton.

One in ten jobs in this country are directly or indirectly related to the auto industry. Apparently the Bush economic legacy finds that colateral damage acceptable.

Mencken said...

ReaganFan84..... I think most people would agree that you've never heard of the Military Industrial Complex.