Cash for Clunkers.

The person who calculated this bit of  information is now, and has been a
professor at the University of West  Virginia in Morgantown for the last
forty some years.

He says  that:

A clunker that travels 12,000  miles a year at 15 mpg uses 800 gallons of
gas a year.

A new  vehicle that travels 12,000 miles a year at 25 mpg uses 480 gallons
of  gas a year.

So, the average Cash for Clunkers transaction  reduced  gasoline
consumption by 320 gallons per year.

The  government  claims 700,000 clunkers have been replaced so that is 224
million gallons  saved per year.

That equates to a bit over 5  million barrels of  oil.

5 million barrels is about 5 hours  worth of US  consumption.

More importantly, 5 million barrels of  oil at $70 per  barrel costs about
$350 million dollars.

So, the  government paid  $3 billion of our tax dollars to save $350
million.

They spent  $8.57 for every $1.00 they  saved.

They will do a  much better job with our  health care though.