Our system of government was never designed to provide legalized "bribery" to produce certain behavior. But in too many things, Congress has voted to use taxpayers' money to "subsidize" various behaviors, paying us to do this, or not do that.
The most familiar such program is the payment of billions of dollars of taxpayers' money for growing certain crops or not growing certain crops. But unfortunately, there are many other programs designed to modify our behavior.
The latest one is the congressional enactment to use taxpayers' money to "bribe" Americans to buy cars that take less gas. The bribe would come in the form of a voucher on a sliding scale up to $4,500. For example, the top subsidy of $4,500 could go to someone buying a new truck or SUV that gets as little as five more miles per gallon than his old vehicle. The "cash for clunkers" bill calls for spending $1 billion of your tax money from July through November.
It obviously is designed not just to reduce use of gasoline but also to stimulate to sale of about a million additional vehicles for about $4 billion, to help the car business and economy.
Is this the kind of thing our high-tax, red-ink government should be doing?
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