Cash for clunkers turning into boondoggle

Legislation in D.C. is as pliable as Play-Doh (and answerable to campaign dough) -- witness the clunker buyback proposal. As originally proposed, this program was designed to pull old, gas-guzzling and pollution-producing vehicles off the road in order to improve the environment. Now its has become just another car company bailout program.

According to The Wall Street Journal, the most recent proposal puttering through the House Energy and Commerce Committee would give a $4,500 voucher to anyone scrapping a truck for one that gets a mere 2 mpg better mileage. A one mile per gallon improvement would be worth $3,500. Owners of trucks in the four to five ton class that are eight or more years old would get the same $3,500 to scrap their jalopy in favor of a new truck of the same or lesser size, regardless of mileage.