Cash for Clunkers. The program was launched on July 27 and offers owners of old, gas-guzzling cars, the opportunity to trade in their car for up to $4,500 to spend on a new, more efficient vehicle. We've all heard about the newest bill brought on by the legislature and feelings are mixed in all directions, but this bill is too important and industrious to the US to let dissipate.
The Cash for Clunkers program is a great example of what the government can do to inspire growth and stimulate economic activity in areas resulting in multiple impacts, all those impacts being good and producing positive economic results. According to Business Week, the program has been a huge success, so much so that the initial $1 billion allocated for the program (scheduled to run into November) has nearly run out and economists are saying there is a significant boost in the economy.
With the usage of less fuel, due to auto owners upgrading to more fuel-efficient vehicles, we lessen our dependence on foreign oil, which ultimately gets us out of places like Iraq, and the countries bordering the proposed fuel transmission pipelines through the volatile region near Pakistan and Afghanistan. Most importantly, this will ultimately reduce our military expenditure as we'll no longer need to occupy oil-producing countries to feed our fuel-inefficient dependency on an obsolete technology, the internal combustion engine.
Not only does this bill increase spending in our otherwise down economy and help us to bring troops home, but it also inadvertently helps the environment. With the creation of incentives for owners of old, fuel-inefficient vehicles to trade up to a more fuel-efficient vehicle, the federal government is, by default, creating a cleaner, or, shall we say, less toxic, atmosphere that provides us the essential air we need to breathe healthfully. In turn, by cleaning the air we breathe, we're also likely to experience a decrease in lung disease and respiratory-related ailment, eventually decreasing the cost of healthcare.
This bill needs to continue past November. The good it can do for our country is of too 
much worth to let ebb out. Your congressperson needs to hear from you. Urge them to authorize increased funds for continuation of this highly-productive Cash for Clunkers program.