'Blue States' reportedly biggest winners in Cash For Clunkers
In the wake of the government's Cash for Clunkers program, analysts are crunching the data to determine who benefited the most from the month-long incentive program. Interestingly enough, it appears that "Blue States" (states where the residents predominantly vote for Democrat) benefited the most. USA Today reports that the 28 states that voted for Barack Obama have requested nearly $2.13 billion in rebates. On the other hand, states that voted for John McCain (a.k.a. "Red States"), have only requested $757 million.
Political analysts are puzzled, as there is no clear-cut indicator to explain the findings. One has suggested that middle-class Americans in Blue States took advantage of the rebate, even if they weren't in the market for a new car. Another suggested that it was up to the dealers. "I know in Tennessee, dealers were pulling back, whereas in Illinois, the dealers were all gung-ho," said a democratic pollster. One significant deciding factor was credit. Mississippi (a red state) finished second from the bottom. "I'm sure there are a lot of people who would have loved to trade in, but in Mississippi, income and credit right now are the worst I've seen," said the general manager of a dealership in the state.
[Source: USA Today]
Reader Comments (Page 1 of 3)
zamafir 6:02PM (9/08/2009)
why not cross reference it with which states receive the most aid, i'd wager most of the blue states receive less aid which might indicate a buying population more ready to purchase a car and take on said debt? Doesn’t seem too puzzling.
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paul34 6:10PM (9/08/2009)
What kind of "aid" do you mean? And from whom?
zamafir 6:30PM (9/08/2009)
Federal, from the government, specifically federal tax burden for programs in the health and services, welfare, food programs etc. We could play the median income game instead if you want. Either way there seems to be more disposable income as a rule in the blue states than the red states, which would provide a fairly feasible reason for the miracles results of c4c in said states.
People who can afford to buy cars, or who can qualify for credit under the new regulations, will do so. I’m sure population size helps as well.
zamafir 6:36PM (9/08/2009)
This might help you:
The 28 states Obama won in 2008 have requested nearly $2.13 billion in rebates, or $15.12 per licensed driver. Obama won all but one of the states that are not a net drain on the federal government
The 22 states that voted for McCain have requested $757 million, or $12.17 per driver.
The supermajority of these states are largely dependent upon federal aid (net drain)
adam1drift 6:51PM (9/08/2009)
@zamafir do you have facts to back up any of this crap you say? cuz it all sounds like crap to me?
audi_arena 7:04PM (9/08/2009)
adam:
This isn't rocket science; The blue states no only have more drivers, but wealthier drivers, thus more buyers. If you look at the difference in government payout per driver as Zamafir pointed out, considering the difference in disposable income, this isn't suprizing at all.
Zamafir 7:36PM (9/08/2009)
Crap? Sure if you think the federal tax burden numbers released in every census are crap. If that's the case then we've left a reasonable discussion. As Audi pointed out, none of this is new, the same trend was obvious last election.
Aprime 12:04AM (9/09/2009)
...Aren't they the most populate states anyhow?
PJ 12:17AM (9/09/2009)
From 2004 Census data:
http://www.statemaster.com/graph/eco_tot_tax_bur-total-tax-burden-per-capita
As a rule, blue states "pay into" government programs more with their tax dollars, while red states contribute less, "cashing out" more of other states' tax dollars (for welfare, food stamps, taxpayer-funded health care, etc). Zamafir didn't point this out to be partisan, but as a measure of how much disposable income these states' residents have. People with more money on hand are more likely to rush out and buy a new car when it's been mildly incentivized.
jv2k 12:13AM (9/09/2009)
I love my state(well I love it's location and the fact that I don't get extreme weather) but I find it hard to believe ny has a lower rate of welfare and other government programs than montana or kansas.
Kitko 1:15AM (9/09/2009)
Let me put it this way. Apparetnly, people in Blue states are more intelligent and simply took advantage of the great offer. Apparently, Red states' population was just not quick enough to realize what they can gain.
notYou 10:59AM (9/09/2009)
@kitko: "Apparetnly, people in Blue states are more intelligent and simply took advantage of the great offer. Apparently, Red states' population was just not quick enough to realize what they can gain."
Reconstructed for this universe:
"Apparetnly, people in Blue states are more intelligent and simply took advantage of taking up the fed on it's offer to give them other people's money. Apparently, Red states' population was incensed with the notion of federalized theft and declined."
Whoops, sorry, we're in the HopeNChange'iverse, Kitko probably had it right.
ed 6:04PM (9/08/2009)
It doesn't take a statistical genius to see the overwhelming coincidence that the most highly populated states have the highest number of Cash for Clunkers rebates.
The political affiliation is just a residual based on the last presidential election. Try this same analysis with the political boundaries as they were 4 or even 8 years ago.
Another case of lying statistics.
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noodlz 6:17PM (9/08/2009)
Did you read the article? They compiled the stats based upon $ per licensed driver in each state, not overall quantity (which is why Minnesota had the highest rate).
geo.stewart 8:35PM (9/08/2009)
your highly populated states are almost always Blue too.
you dont find many slums or ghettos in Kansas. and that's not fair. but in general, your cities are always more liberal than your urban areas. Of course, they prefer to say they are enlightened and that's why they should be in control of your money instead of you.
CH 1:42AM (9/09/2009)
Yes, Noodlz, but the number of licensed drivers is hardly the only factor that determines the volume of new car purchases. Other factors include income, demographics, environment (such as urban vs rural, availability of public transportation), social and cultural attitudes; which vary by state. The dollar/licensed driver data lacks any kind of control group to account for these differences, and so cannot be used to draw any conclusions.
One possible set of control data is the normal pattern of new car purchases across states. For all we know, the C4C data might be consistent with the historical patterns.
the4thheat 4:16AM (9/09/2009)
Not only that but Michigan is a "blue state" and it requested a ton of money which automatically skews the results.
Either way this is stupid since large states like California and New York get compared with barely populated red states like Idaho? Yeah that totally makes sense guys.
Samurai Jack 6:12PM (9/08/2009)
While I agree with ed, I'd also like to think that the folks in red states are sticking to their ideology and are refusing to take government handouts.
;-)
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Brian 6:25PM (9/08/2009)
Nope. Red states are normally the biggest recipients of government handouts.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/articles/A19566-2005Jan18.html
Sanders 6:22PM (9/08/2009)
Ideology? Sorry, no. There are very few fiscal Republicans left. Most of the one's who were outspoken this past election are of the fundamental Christian evangalist, the anti-same sex marriage and 'let's nuke all the Muslims because AM radio said to' crowd. Leaning hard right on social issues does not make one a text book capitalist.