Some more thoughts and a smattering of data on the subject of Junker
Bills: It seems like there are many versions of the same basic
idea floating around. Congress has one idea, Bush has at least
one different idea. Here's a clipping from the latest (3/23)
issue of Autoweek. It is from a short article examining the
attitudes of the major candidates for the presidential nominations
this year. Bush was speaking at Detroit's Economic Club.
". . . there had been talk that the president would go a step further
and roll back CAFE. He also was expected to comment on a proposed
Senate bill that would allow consumers to take $10,000 from
Individual Retirement Accounts and use the money to buy a new
car. He was supposed to mention the so-called junker car rule,
under which owners of older cars could turn them in for a
$700-$1,000 tax credit. He addressed none of those issues."
Wow, a tax credit! Wouldn't that be nice! But surely they
would want some restriction on it, to prevent me from applying
the money to purchasing a nice new Miata. And of course
there arises the problem of whether it should apply to an Ohio
Honda, or a Canadian Jeep. Probably never happen. And if
it did, I can tell you what kind of "junker" I would be turning
in for the credit - my 1971 Plymouth Duster. Anybody offers me
a thou for that heap can have the keys right now. (Actually,
they'd be getting a reasonable bargain in terms of transportation
per buck.) I don't think many people would be turning in their
LBCs for a program like this. The easiest old heap to get
running long enough to qualify for the program will always be
a twenty-year-old Detroit sedan. There's a mid-sixties Olds
Cutlass advertised on the bulletin board downstairs for $350.
A perfect candidate.
Jim Beckman AT&T, Middletown, NJ att!mtqub!jeb
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