Cash for Video?

Barack,
Cash for Clunkers... interesting program. Many think its a great program. I'd have to say, the way its structured is totally debatable.

But..really...whats your agenda? Is it to spur the economy? is it to yet again help the auto makers? or is it to help the environment?

I say, lets take $1B (heck, to government types $1B is chump change) and lets to a Cash for Video program. $4500 per video conferencing room as an immediate refund right from the US government. I tell you Barack, it would be enormous ROI for everyone involved.

Let me throw some math your way. If I have a car that gets 18mpg and I upgrade to one that gets 36mpg and lets say I drive 10K miles per year and lets assume gas at $3 per gallon. At 18mpg, its 555 gallons or $1666 per year. Double the gas mileage and I'm at 277 gallons per year or $833 per year. Its a savings of $833 per year.

But, give me $4500 to build a video conferencing room and if I just use it one day per week for one meeting with 8 people. Lets say its a regional busines and we drive to meetings. If its 8 people and say 100 miles each, its 800 miles a week. Do that meeting 50x a year and we're at 40,000 miles. Say we're still drivig 18mpg cars..thats $6666 of gas. Even if we have 36mpg cars...that $3333 of gas per year. That makes my savings 400% greater than the cash for clunkers program. And thats all from just one meeting held weekly.

Imagine if we were uniting people cross country? What if we were having multiple meetings per week? The ROI just increases. The decrease in the amount of energy use. And not to mention the amount of CO2 produced.

Barack, you're certainly the most hip and trendy President I've seen..and you're certainly the most technological. This should be a no brainer. Or..I know you like to play basketball...that makes it an easy lay up.

Lets spend tax dollars wisely.

jeff