Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood is feeling expansive. And why wouldn’t he? The man’s got the hottest stimulus on the block this summer. And even though there might be more C4C deals than money left in the program, LaHood wants to keep the sodium silicate flowing. Even though the Senate still hasn’t approved more money. “We will continue the program until we see what the Senate does, and I believe the Senate will pass this,” LaHood boasts to Automotive News [sub]. Does this mean there is definitely still money available for the deals that LaHood personally guarantees through Tuesday? Not necessarily. This is much more of a way of putting pressure on the Senate to approve another $2 billion. And LaHood’s play for more money hasn’t convinced everyone. “I take the secretary at his word, but we still urge dealers to use caution when doing cash-for-clunkers transactions,” say NADA spokesfolk. Because appointed officials aren’t actually in charge of appropriations, no matter how quickly they can make a billion bucks disappear. Unless LaHood cares to put up his $191K salary towards getting Americans into a new Cobalt.
