Think of it this way: A clunker automobile that travels 12,000 miles a year at 15 mpg uses 800 gallons of gas a year. A vehicle that travels 12,000 miles a year at 25 mpg uses 480 gallons a year. So, the average Cash for Clunkers transaction will reduce US gasoline consumption by 320 gallons per year. They claim 700,000 vehicles were traded in so that's 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, at $4,500 per clunker the government paid $3.15 billion of our tax dollars to save $350 million.

We spent $9.00 for every dollar we saved.

I'm pretty sure they will do a great job with our health care, though.