Free Republic

He's going to do it.I would have wagered a kidney.With his time in the White House dwindling away, and the Messiah waiting in the wings to fire up his own trillion dollar stimulus package, President George W. Bush has decided to dip into his bag of inexplicable tricks and live up to the "lame" half of lame duck. He is tapping the $700 billion bailout bag - the three-quarters of a trillion dollar taxpayer bailout bag-o-loot originally intended to save the banking industry - and try to make things all better for the failing American automobile industry.I'd like to say...

DETROIT (Reuters) - Chrysler which has over 100,000 US employees is closing it's plants for at least one month as the company does it's best to save money and sell off existing stock. Earlier in the day Chrysler LLC's finance arm has told dealers it may temporarily stop loans used by dealers to stock vehicles because the retailers pulled money from a fund that helps finance them. Chrysler Financial Chief Executive Tom Gilman sent letters to dealers, dated Dec. 12, that asked them to refrain from withdrawing large amounts from a "cash management account" used to finance the loans, a...

Seven Republican senators signed a letter sent to President Bush on Tuesday, urging him not to use Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) funds in a bailout of U.S. automakers. The senators wrote that absent restructuring, they "do not believe any amount of money will succeed in saving these companies." The letter was sent by Senators Jim DeMint (R-South Carolina), Jeff Sessions (R-Alabama), John Ensign (R-Nevada), Tom Coburn (R-Oklahoma), John Cornyn (R-Texas), Mike Enzi (R-Wyoming) and Saxby Chambliss (R-Georgia).

DES MOINES, Iowa -- Sen. Tom Harkin is proposing new legislation that he said would increase the demand for American cars. Along with Sen. Dick Durbin, of Illinois, Harkin introduced a bill earlier this week that in turn would take older, less-fuel-efficient cars off the road, while also giving buyers a big bonus. The Sell Fuel Efficient Cars Act would provide a rebate of $10,000 to buyers who trade in a car more than 10 years old for a new American car. Officials said the reason for the act is to help create demand for American cars and preserve jobs...

WASHINGTON: The House voted 237 to 170 Wednesday night in favor of a $15 billion rescue for the automobile industry, but the fate of the measure was uncertain because of shaky support among Republicans in the Senate. The House approval of the Democratic-backed program was not a surprise, given the Democrats' 236-to-198 advantage in the chamber. The bigger test will come in the Senate, where the Democrats' edge is only 50 to 49 and where 60 votes are needed to advance the legislation because of procedural rules. Debate in the House focused on the whether the bailout was good for...

Four Big Lies about the Big Three Automakers Monday, December 8, 2008 3:58 PM With Congressional Democrats and the Bush administration agreeing in principle over the weekend to drop a few billion on General Motors and Chrysler, all signs point to a government-backed auto industry bailout. But could the crisis in Detroit be the product of myth, spin and outright lies? As the nation inches closer to an unprecedented investment in private industry, Newsmax has examined the falsehoods being spread to promote the deal. Indeed, the exact amount of money to be doled out isn’t clear yet. GM and Chrysler...

Detroit's Big Three refused to adopt the bottom-up approach that Toyota, Nissan and other international manufacturers used to achieve success. The failure is even more egregious because GM, Ford and Chrysler management knew about the bottom-up secret to Japanese auto-making success and ignored it. Time magazine describes the painful, lost opportunity the top-down management mindset of Henry Ford bequeathed to the Big three produced: Of all Detroit's failures – the failure to master small cars, failure to cut costs, failure to get tough with the UAW, failure to improve fuel efficiency – the failure to learn, says MacDuffie, is perhaps...

For those of us with a grain of self-respect, it’s embarrassing to watch Chrysler’s Bob Nardelli, Ford’s Alan Mulally, and GM’s Rick Wagoner pleading with Congress for a bailout. And while these grown men grovel at the feet of Representatives and Senators in a manner befitting slaves, the beggary isn’t the worst of it. No, the worst of it is the fact that the money for which they’re pleading isn’t even the government’s money to begin with: it’s our money.

"Yesterday, Americans for Limited Government President Bill Wilson, along with seventeen other conservative, limited government, and free market leaders, delivered an unyielding message to members Congress. It is an imperative message, and one that must become the clarion call of the opposition party during the next presidential administration: No more bailouts—especially not for the Big Three."

The push by Detroit's ailing Big Three automakers for government aid has set off a furious debate that has distinct undertones of a North-South conflict - and Alabama is smack in the middle of the skirmish. With the fate of the Big Three hanging in the balance, the chief of the United Auto Workers late last month singled out Alabama for criticism, saying the state has ponied up $700 million in tax breaks and perks for foreign automakers. Ron Gettelfinger, whose union also is imperiled, complained that Alabama lawmakers are among those opposing a bailout of General Motors Corp., Ford...

Looking for improved business models for the personal computer business, Apple CEO Steve Jobs often used to cite automobile makers, though never American car companies. The examples were invariably German. Whether it was the design aesthetic of his Mercedes sedan or Porsche's success at selling high-margin cars as entertainment devices, Jobs could always point to farfegnugen as a way to sell a good car for a great price. So since he thinks about these things anyway, and because the U.S. automobile industry is on the skids and begging for help this week, I find myself wondering what would happen if...

Dear misharu, You made the right choice when you put your confidence in General Motors, and we appreciate your past support. I want to assure you that we are making our best vehicles ever, and we have exciting plans for the future. But we need your help now. Simply put, we need you to join us to let Congress know that a bridge loan to help U.S. automakers also helps strengthen the U.S. economy and preserve millions of American jobs. Despite what you may be hearing, we are not asking Congress for a bailout but rather a loan that will...

The car was the symbol of the prewar 20th century. Henry Ford's Model T, Volkswagen's people's car and even Britain's Morris Oxford were more than just industrial products. Suddenly, industrialisation was able to offer the mass of consumers cheap, convenient and individual mobility. The car changed industrial civilisations and their cultures. Detroit was the undisputed centre of the industry. It manufactured more cars than anywhere else - four out of five across the globe as late as the mid 1950s. Its cars shaped American society. Americans yearned to climb into its Buicks, Cadillacs and Mustangs. The cars denoted your identity...

Only a professor, preferably a sociology professor, one with way too much time on his hands, could have come up with this one. His solution to the Detroit crisis that has the Big Three automakers on the brink of bye-bye? Unionize their foreign competitors manufacturing in the USA! Now why didn't we think of that? Because we're not Jonathan Cutler, associate professor of sociology at Wesleyan University. His solution in a nutshell, contained in his Los Angeles Times column of today [emphasis added]: "[N]ot to tear down the historic and heroic gains won by prior generations of UAW workers. If...

GM CEO Wagoner optimistic after Senate HearingWould you be optimistic if someone who had burned down their house playing with matches offered to light your furnace for you? General Motors Corp. Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner emerged Thursday from a six-hour hearing before the Senate Banking Committee optimistic that a deal can be reached in Congress to help his company survive a critical cash shortage.Ever heard the phrase "brilliant minds think alike"? Well, so do dumb minds: Wagoner said many of the questions and suggestions from committee members were compatible with the viability plan GM submitted to Congress on Tuesday...

Now that automakers are all busy gearing up to make electric vehicles, consumers should be getting a choice of roomy, speedy, gasoline-free models that charge up at a standard 110-volt socket. So when will those cars roll out of factories so plentifully that prices drop to what ordinary people can afford? That was the question at the Electric Drive Transportation Association conference and exhibition in Washington this week, and on Capitol Hill as well, as the Big Three automakers made a pitch for aid. The recession, the credit crunch and the dominance of oil-driven transportation will make it difficult. However,...

Washington, D.C.--Advocates of a bailout for the Big Three claim that if we allow these giants to fail, it will destroy the U.S. auto industry. “In fact,” said Alex Epstein, an analyst at the Ayn Rand Institute, “it is the bailout, a veritable marriage between Detroit and Washington, that will destroy the U.S. auto industry. “The Big Three have no right to demand that taxpayers risk money on them when private investors won’t. They do, however, have a right to demand the repeal of the policies that have helped destroy the auto industry. These include the labor laws that have...

By now I'm sure most of us have seen the result of a week or so of intensive image counseling with the CEO's of the "Big 3" automakers out of Detroit (see photo). Emerging from the intensive PR boot camp leaner and greener, the three most powerful men in the American auto industry are selling their souls to "bail out" their companies. Simultaneously South Carolina Governor Mark Sanford is telling us that the auto industry in his state is strong. No matter which way you look at it or whether or not you support floating tax dollars to mismanaged companies,...

The United Auto Workers union called an emergency meeting for December 3 to decide what it is prepared to concede to help the Big Three U.S. automakers stay solvent. Up until now, the UAW has argued that it shouldn’t have to make additional concessions. After all, the union agreed in 2007 to new contracts that brought wages and benefits down to more realistic levels. Once the health-care provisions of these contracts take effect in 2010, union officials say, the Big Three will be out from underneath the crushing labor liabilities that have saddled them with so much debt. While it’s...

The U.S. economy is in the toilet because Congress, led by Sen. Christopher Dodd and Rep. Barney Frank, browbeat lenders into giving mortgages to unqualified borrowers. To date, the government has allocated almost $4 trillion it doesn't have to try to repair the resulting economic damage. Unchastened by the experience, Congress may lend the nation's Big Three automakers $25 billion to keep them afloat into 2009. Congress has become the bank of last resort for General Motors, Ford and Chrysler because they no longer can get private financing. For good reason. Combined, they have a negative net worth exceeding $60...