Steven Greenhut on California's 'Green' Car Vouchers for the Poor

Remember how well Cash for Clunkers worked out?

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Tom Raftery / Foter.com / CC BY-NC-SA

One longtime critic of federal transportation spending once concluded that it would be less expensive for the government to buy every new transit rider a Jaguar XJ8 than it would be to build certain new rail systems. Unfortunately, California officials may not have realized that the idea of buying people new cars wasn't a serious proposal as much as a way to illustrate a point about excessive spending. Steven Greenhut says this $30-million-a-year program is essentially a "cash for clunkers" boondoggle.