The kind of feeling you get behind the wheel of the Pelosi GTxi SS/Rt Sport Edition from Congressional Motors
Iowahawk strikes again.
7 comments November 24th, 2008
Posts with the tag 'UAW'
Allow GM to Die
There is much Democratic angst over General Motors and the prospects of Big Auto bankruptcy. My view: allow the bankruptcy to happen. The economic model enshrined in Big Auto is a dinosaur from the 1950’s and it is unrealistic to think that such a large corporation with a huge bureaucracy and an entrenched, corrupt union can ever compete in the global market. We can subsidize, bail out and protect till the cows come home - but it is certain that the American auto makers will have to undergo massive change.
Worse than the economic illiteracy involved in a Detroit bail out is the fact that our taxpayer dollars - already strained by the clearly-failing Wall Street bail out - will merely be used to prop up Democratic donors. Democrats could give a hoot about GM, but they do care very much to keep the UAW afloat because the UAW donated nearly $1.8 million directly to Democratic candidates in 2008 while also shelling out more than $9 million on other political activities which directly or indirectly aided Democratic political efforts. That is a lot of scratch, and the Democratic party doesn’t want this cash cow slaughtered.
We GOPers in our political wilderness at least have this advantage - we can’t get government swag for anyone, and thus we are now allowed to re-establish ourselves as the anti-corruption and fiscal responsibility party. We are, once again, the taxpayer’s watchdog.
Sorry, GM, but it was your own fool decisions which got you into this mess. Everyone has to start thinking, and no better place to start than in that monument to liberal and corporate failure, Detroit
34 comments November 12th, 2008
Democrats Seek to Shield Corrupt, Anti-Competitive Unions
From the consequences of their insane labor contracts with Big Auto:
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid sent to send a letter to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson urging him to assist the Big Three auto makers by considering broadening the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program to help the troubled industry.
The two top Democratic leaders in Congress are likely to make the request in a letter to the White House, which could be forwarded as soon as Saturday afternoon, said individuals familiar with the matter. President-elect Barack Obama is generally supportive of the appeal, but at the moment is moving on his own track to assist the industry, these individuals said.
Mr. Obama is scheduled to meet with President George W. Bush at the White House Monday.
The White House has been reluctant to broaden use of the $700 billion program, which was created by Congress just ahead of the election to deal improve credit flows and calm turmoil in financial markets incited by the downturn in the housing economy.
“It was not set up for anything else,” said Bush spokesman Tony Fratto, noting the only assistance authorized by Congress for the auto industry is a $25 billion loan package meant to help the industry retool to meet higher fuel economy standards.
Democrats are worried that if the auto industry is forced to deal with economic reality it will result in fewer union members and thus less union swag for Democratic political campaigns - so, they want to bail out Big Auto and thus prevent any change to the way auto manufacturers do business. Now, don’t get me wrong here - Big Auto, at least its American component, appears to be the usual mush of corporate pinheads who, even with 12 million unit sales expected this year, have managed to run their cash machine up on the rocks. It isn’t hard to sell a car in America, ya know? Its not like they don’t have people knocking on their doors asking for their product, even if its a relatively crappy product which is over-priced and not fuel-efficient (I do like my Malibu Max, and thus I understand that GM is discontinuing the model…). Don’t anyone get the idea that I have any sympathy for the faceless blob corporations of the United States - devices to hide incompetence, that’s all they are…smaller is better, and if we can figure out a way to break up these big corporations without adversely effecting the free market, then I’m all for it.
Anyways - this is what we can expect from our Democrats; using taxpayer dollars to protect their electoral base. It doesn’t matter that the UAW and the corporations have made it almost impossible for our auto companies to swiftly react to changing market conditions, the only thing that matters to Democrats is the next election, and they want a lot of donations and no major union job losses, regardless of cost to the taxpayer and larger economy. This is what “hopenchange” really means, liberals - more corporate greed, union corruption and Democratic backscratching…
10 comments November 8th, 2008
