To artificially goose Government Motors’ Chevy Volt sales, the Obama administration is not just handing $7,500 to its wealthy buyers (buyer demographic: incomes over $200,000) — it is also ghost-buying Volts via stimulus funds for townships and corporate cronies like General Electric. Including the federal government’s own purchases of the plug-in electric, some estimates put 20 percent of the Volt’s first-year sales as Big Government purchases.
So much for demand.
Now James Hohman at Michigan’s Mackinac Center has added up the numbers at the supply end and found the public subsidy for the Volt amounts to a $3 billion, putting the public subsidy per car at a whopping $250,000 per car. Mackinac’s Capital Confidential reports:
Hohman looked at total state and federal assistance offered for the development and production of the Chevy Volt, General Motors’ plug-in hybrid electric vehicle. His analysis included 18 government deals that included loans, rebates, grants and tax credits. The amount of government assistance does not include the fact that General Motors is currently 26 percent owned by the federal government.
The Volt subsidies flow through multiple companies involed in production. The analysis includes adding up the amount of government subsidies via tax credits and direct funding for not only General Motors, but other companies supplying parts for the vehicle. For example, the Department of Energy awarded a $105.9 million grant to the GM Brownstown plant that assembles the batteries. The company was also awarded approximately $106 million for its Hamtramck assembly plant in state credits to retain jobs. The company that supplies the Volt’s batteries, Compact Power, was awarded up to $100 million in refundable battery credits (combination tax breaks and cash subsidies). These are among many of the subsidies and tax credits for the vehicle.
GM has estimated they’ve sold 6,000 Volts so far. That would mean each of the 6,000 Volts sold would be subsidized between $50,000 and $250,000, depending on how many government subsidy milestones are realized.
Read more here.
Only a thug like Obama would dictate demand for certain automobiles (aka golf carts) on the American consumer at an outrageous cost to the taxpayer. At what point does Obama's generous waste of taxpayer dollars become a crime? Obama lacks accountability for the failure of his devious economic programs. He will continue to waste our money and get away with taxpayer theft that only the Mafia could respect.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseFunny thing, this is actually Bush's policy, the arrangements were all made by September 2008 with production slated for 2010.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseIt's time to stop subsidizing impractical, overpriced vanity cars for the rich with taxpayer dollars from the middle class -- or what's left of it. GM should have been allowed to go under just like any other company that makes poor decisions and fails to produce a viable product.
Reply to this commentLinkReport AbuseThe federal govt should NOT be subsidizing ANYTHING; it either succeeds on its own or fails. People decry what's called "corporate welfare" yet here's a perfect example of it from the most socialistic president we've ever had. It's all about income redistribution. Take from those that pay taxes (remember, half the income earners don't pay ANYTHING) with an ever increasing tax rate in order to hand those dollars to people that didn't earn it. Think of how many non-competitive jobs have been subsidized in the "Green Energy" field.
Quit blaming "the rich" (lazy term most people use for anyone making more than they themselves earn) for everything. After 30 years of hard work and my wife's creating (yes, creating not taking) her own business we've managed to hit the $250k/yr income that Barry and the Bandits declare as evil. As a small business, we don't have all the big tax dodges the large corporations buy directly from Congress. We're the ones subsidizing those crummy cars, NOT the so-called middle class.
People should be fighting against all the subsidizes that distort the free market and force one group (any group) to pay for any other group. That's socialism. After all, one day when they've eliminated the wealthy (the truly rich will always skate by) then they'll be after the just well off. It only ends when everyone has the same, which isn't going to be much.
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