And killed the used car market for years and screwed the poor out of a source of affordable used cars.
With the amount of money he spent on that bailing out the car companies, he could have offered an incentive of a several thousand dollar rebate to individuals who bought a new car and traded in or sold their old ones.
Then people wouldn't have been destroying perfectly good used cars for nothing, there'd be new cars on the roads, and the auto manufacturers would have seen their increase in sales anyways.
Oh, Yeah, that Cash for Clunkers program chapped my hide. My taxes from a meager enough paycheck going to buy cars for ppl who already qualified for a new-car loan. Meanwhile destroying perfectly serviceable used cars that should have hit the market for used-car budgets like mine. Good going, a-hole.