Dave Schuler has the lowdown on why the proposed extension to cash for clunkers should be killed:

I have heard so many repetitions of the Broken Window Fallacy in various forms over the last few months that I’m about ready to scream. Can any example be clearer than that of the “success” of the “Cash for Clunkers” program, the program by which people who have enough money to buy new cars at 20,000 or more a pop get a subsidy to do it with.

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Further, the money that’s being spent might have been used to promote industries that are more likely to produce growth than the automobile industry is. It’s the equivalent of eating the seed corn, something that should only be done when you’re starving. We’re not starving yet.

I agree. If we’re going to spend a couple billion dollars, why not a $3500 tax credit for people who add solar panels to their home or a wind turbine to their property? That’d be better for both the environment and the economy than the cash for clunkers program.