A.L .-- I can understand the political B.S. -- this stimulus political argument has raged since the New Deal. I don't understand the question from the auto industry point of view.
It is worth mentioning that the initial impetus/claim for C4C centered around getting older, gas-guzzling models off the road (Clunkers), in favor of newer, fuel-efficient models. So much so that there was an intricate litany of government guidelines that had to be met before a transaction was eligible for government reimbursement. I do remember D.C. claiming "victory" insomuch as whatever charts and graphs they showed at the time purporting how much less fuel would be burned as a result of the program. I put as much stock in those reports as I put in the reports I used to fabricate to show how fabulous was my performance in my self-built Internet Department...
To my knowledge and memory (admittedly both quickly fading...), there were two levels of Dealer discontent during the program:
1. Smaller dealers without qualifying units. The aforementioned guidelines stipulated only certain units would qualify. As a result, dealers sitting without inventory simply "missed out" and watched as the guy across the street paraded deliveries over the curb... green with envy, to be sure.
2. Getting reimbursed from D.C. was an absolute nightmare for many, maybe even MOST dealers. As I recall, the program was hastily assembled and funded with something like $1B (I'm sure someone can quickly fact-check the actual numbers... I'm too lazy). The program would run until the money ran dry. But it turned-out that the money ran out in something crazy like 7-10 days or maybe 2 weeks -- it was a runaway success. So congress scrambled and funded something like another 4 billion into the program, extending C4C another month or so.
It's critical to understand that dealers were delivering cars on the promise that D.C. would reimburse the dealers for the rebates passed along to the customers at delivery -- some up to $4500 (again, memory??). Dealers already short on cash flow struggled. I do remember some dealers refusing to deliver units until the rebate was in-house -- and that took weeks and weeks, and longer if you were not buttoned-up on your paperwork. D.C. was scrambling to hire accountants and administrators as the program continued; no one anticipated the runaway interest in the program.
So yeah, if GM's fell into one of those two categories, I could understand some sour grapes. But at the end of the program, D.C. funded a few billion dollars in rebates, which was seen as "free money" to anyone still holding on to that '82 Skylark. And it turns out, there were a whooooole lot of 'em. I distinctly remember this one old couple trading-in in their early 80's Eldorado battleship on an Elantra. No joke.
Those are the facts and the truth of the matter to the best of my recollection.