Now that the government's Cash for Clunkers rebate program is largely over, the debate has begun - did it do any good? Supporters said the program would spur consumer spending to help the economy recover from the current recession, save thousands of jobs in the ailing auto industry, remove hundreds of thousands of heavy-polluting vehicles from America's roads and cut into our demand for foreign oil. But opponents argue that none of those goals were truly accomplished by the $3 billion program.

Christopher Knittle, an economics professor at the University of California at Davis, told ABC News "As an environmental program, Cash for Clunkers is basically overpaying for the environmental benefits." Knittle doubts the program did much to ease demand for foreign oil, either. "Knittle calculated the program will save approximately 270 gallons of gasoline per car, per year. If a total of 750,000 vehicles are sold, as appears likely, approximately 12,000 barrels of oil a day will be saved." That's not a particularly significant number, he argues, since the United States consumes an average of 9 million barrels of oil per day.

The program could even paradoxically boost carbon pollution, some say. Harvard economist Edward L. Glaser wrote in the Boston Globe, "One side effect of the program is that new car owners will surely find it more appealing to drive in their snazzy new cars." Any program aimed at cutting pollution, he argues, should aim to "make driving more, not less, expensive."

Some question the economic benefits as well. The New York Times notes, "While the program helped sell an estimated 700,000 new cars in less than five weeks, one analyst suggested that only about 200,000 of those were additional sales that would not have been made otherwise. Analysts expect the traffic in showrooms to slow considerably once the program ends on Monday." The program may ultimately have provided some boost to auto sales. IHS Global Insight analyst Rebecca Lindland told the Times "Her firm had been predicting sales of 9.8 million new cars this year, but recently increased its forecast to 10.3 million." But it isn't clear how many of those new car sales would have happened soon without the program, meaning that the current sales boost may come at the expense of slower sales in the coming months.

Still, supporters say, the program has had some measurable benefit. The Christian Science Monitor reports, "All this activity has already had benefits for the nation's employment rate and overall gross domestic product (GDP), according to the White House. Ford has announced an 18 percent increase in production due to strong third-quarter sales, according to the senior administration official at the background briefing. More than 10,000 General Motors workers will receive overtime checks they otherwise would not have gotten."

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