Government fails to reimburse in cash for clunkers program

Hurry up and line up to put Obama in charge of your health care. He will give you the same lousy treatment he gives everyone else.

The car dealers are being reimbursed very, very slowly. Why would he do better for you?

NY dealers pull out of clunkers program - Breitbart.com:

A New York dealership group says hundreds of its members have left the Cash for Clunkers program, citing delays in getting reimbursed by the government.

The president of the Greater New York Automobile Dealers Association says about half its 425 members have stopped offering rebates from the program because they can no longer afford them.

Mark Schienberg says the group's dealers have been repaid for only about 2 percent of the clunkers deals they've made, leaving many short on cash.

The program offers up to $4,500 to shoppers who trade in gas guzzlers for a more fuel-efficient vehicle. Dealers pay the rebates out of pocket then must wait to be reimbursed by the government, but administrative snags have created a bottleneck in unpaid claims.

Even the NY Times found this:

But the backlog has already pushed some dealers, including several hundred in the New York area, to refuse more trade-ins under the program.

“I’m a small store,” said Ron Morehead Jr., general manager of a Honda dealership in Kingston, N.Y. “The well runs dry.”

Mr. Morehead said he had paid out $225,000 in rebates since the program began last month but had been reimbursed for only one deal, which he filed with the government on July 28. Meanwhile, he said, he still had to pay his 30 employees, pay his bills and repay the bank when he sold a car.

On Tuesday, Mr. Morehead left the program.

“I’ve lost 15 to 20 deals because of it,” Mr. Morehead said. “But you know what? We’re still doing business. I can’t afford to keep sending money out. It’s time to get paid.”

In Georgia, Andy Jones, a dealer at Gerald Jones Honda, said the program had enticed buyers back to his dealership, spurred sales and moved cars off the lot. But now, he said, he has paid $450,000 worth of rebates, and not one has been approved yet.

“The program worked, if we get paid,” Mr. Jones said. “But it’s scary.”