Mold Big 3 Bail-Out After DTV Coupon Program

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Here's a suggestion. Congress should pattern the Big Three auto makers bail-out after the recent TV Converter Box Coupon Program. The program could allow one coupon per household earning $50,000 a year or less. Each coupon would be worth $10,000 and be non-transferable. The coupon can be applied toward the cost of a new American vehicle manufactured or assembled on U.S. soil providing their corporate headquarters are taxed in the United States. Certainly there could be other contingencies, protections and limitations to hold the number down and max it out to $15 billion. Trading in an old polluting vehicle could be another qualifier. This program could act as a catalyst for 1.5 million domestic only vehicle sales.

Admittedly, it does "spread the wealth," but less obnoxiously so than the current TARP legislation. Also, it doesn't address American health care costs - one of the primary reasons why Detroit and other American manufacturing industries can't win against the global competition, nor does it tackle mismanagement. It's not the end-all to our economic problems.

Sure, it'll look like we're subsidizing American labor - but so what? We're on the verge of the Great Depression 2.0 and I can't think of any other country's labor I would rather help subsidize at this point in time. Like anything else, the coupon program can be abused, but tight legislation with stiff penalties should apply. I know, now I'm really sounding crazy.

But I see few other ways to offer a bottom-up stimulus for the Big 3 and guarantee most of the revenue stays in the U.S., help move product off the lots, retain jobs, pay operational expenses, restore confidence, get the Big 3 past the credit crisis and give the economy a bigger shot in the arm than the $750 billion earmarked for Wall Street ever could - all in one swoop. This program would lay the groundwork for part two of the automaker stimulus, the $25 billion already designated for future “green” auto technology.


I'm not pretending like this suggestion has any chance at all, but the question is no longer why, but why not?