is driving a new car an inalienable right?

The US political system is often a source of amusement to me. I have to laugh at the dysfunctions, because the only other option would be to cry.

Recently, as part of a military spending bill Congress attached a $1 billion dollar expediture to encourage people to buy a new car by having the government buy their old ones. This bill has been passed by the House and Senate and is expected to be signed by Obama (by the time of this post it probably has been signed). This bill is known as the "Consumer Assistance Recycle and Save Act of 2009" or in the vernacular as "cash for clunkers."

In my opinion, there are so many things wrong with this scenario. First, what does buying used cars have to do with military spending anyway? Nothing! It was just the only way to pass this asinine bill, by hiding it in something that was likely to pass. Second, should the government be in the business of buying used cars? I think not! Third, is this the best use of our tax dollars given our ever expanding deficits and ongoing recession? To me, there are more essential ventures than the car industry. These days the car industry is only involved in the US economy on a cursory level since it is mostly owned by foreign companies and much of the manufactoring occurs overseas.

The only logical reason I can come up with to pass this kind of legislation is that must we believe it is every Americans inalienable right to drive a new car. We must believe that it would violate our human rights to be forced to drive an older model vehicle that requires repairs, but could be fixed if we were interested in doing so. We must believe the government needs to subsidize this expenditure because of it's connection to our basic survival. We must believe these things to be true and hold them as highly esteemed values. Why else would government be spending $1 billion on such a project at such a critical time in our history?