MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript

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MSNBC "The Ed Show" - Transcript

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SCHULTZ: Welcome back to THE ED SHOW.

Cash for Clunkers coming to an end. I thought it was a joke when it started, I really did, but you‘ve got to admit, it‘s been great.

You know, come 8:00 Monday night, it‘s all over. So, if you‘ve been thinking about trading in your old car for a more fuel-efficient one, this weekend‘s your last chance to get the program‘s $4,500 rebate. So far, almost 500,000 cars have been sold through the program. Dealerships can‘t keep enough cars on their lots.

It‘s a great story, great position to be in. So why are they stopping it?

Let me bring in Congressman Gary Peters, who‘s—can we call you the brainchild behind all of this? You had your hands all over it, Congressman.

Good to have you with us tonight.

REP. GARY PETERS (D), MICHIGAN: Well, it‘s great to be here.

There was Representative Sutton and a lot of other folks that were involved in it, but it was great to be a part of it. Certainly a very, very successful program.

SCHULTZ: It started out with a billion dollars. They thought it was going to go to November. Car dealers right away said you‘re going to run out of money.

You put another $2 billion into it. Why stop at $3 billion when Wall Street got $787 billion?

PETERS: Well, this is a program that has been incredibly successful, but, really, the program was designed to kind of prime the pump. And certainly it has done that, Ed.

We‘ve got folks come into showrooms. Cars are selling, as you mentioned in the opening. Actually, cars are off the showroom floor and off the inventory lot, and we‘re low on inventory.

And a great thing right now is that American car companies are going back and getting those factories working. In fact, a plant in my district is now working overtime to build some Chevy Malibus, which are just flying off the showroom floor.

This is great for America, because not only are we buying cars, that means we‘re making steel, we‘re making rubber, we‘re making plastics. We‘ve got people working.

This is a great economic stimulus. As I‘ve always said on your program, Ed, the best way to get the American economy going is start selling automobiles, and that‘s exactly what‘s happening.

SCHULTZ: OK. So why stop at $3 billion? Why not put it on a date and have it open-ended?

PETERS: Well, it‘s done, the priming. As you mentioned, right now, because of some of the slowdowns that we had, and through the bankruptcy proceedings—for example, GM and Chrysler—there‘s actually a shortage of some of these cars.

So, we want to make sure those cars are out on the lot. This gives some time for the auto companies to get back, get those inventory stocks back up again. Plus, as the economy recovers, we‘ll be able to start selling those cars. So, we can revisit that.

SCHULTZ: Well, I think for sure it‘s an attitude adjustment for a lot of workers in this country.

I do want to point out, out of the top 10 cars that are going off the lots right now, four out of five are foreign cars. Are you concerned about that? Here they are: Toyota; Honda; Ford is number three, the Focus; the Camry; and also Hyundai Elantra.

What do you make of that?

PETERS: Well, we‘ll wait to see the final numbers. The numbers that I‘ve seen is that American cars are selling about equal to their market share. People are going in to the showrooms.

In fact, they‘re not just buying the small cars. We‘re finding out people are buying—even if they don‘t have a clunker to trade in, they‘re going into the showroom and they‘re buying automobiles. So you‘re going to see real strong sales figures from American auto companies as well.

SCHULTZ: And we can say that a government program has worked, can we not?

PETERS: Absolutely. This worked, and it‘s going to get the economy moving.

SCHULTZ: And there was no government takeover at all here, we should point out.

PETERS: Absolutely.

SCHULTZ: Thank you, Congressman. Good to have you with us.

PETERS: Great to be with you, Ed.

SCHULTZ: The benefits of Cash for Clunkers aren‘t just limited to the car companies now. It seems the program is having a ripple effect across other industries.

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