Cash for Clunkers. Now only did it scrap a lot of good parts, it also drove up used car prices, so folks could buy new cars.
A spill doesn't excuse the governments' hiking water prices for additional income. That affects the poor disproportionately. And the damage it does to the perception that government looks out for the common man is immense. Unless you're a Cleveland voter, they don't see the connection
Btw I realize the government here isn't necessarily the government anywhere else.
Pete