Boehner Assails Auto-maker Bailout; Hopes dim for quick action

The Wall Street Journal ^ | November 13, 2008 | Josh Marshall & Michael Crittenden

[St. Louis Conservative]

WASHINGTON -- The prospect of a government bailout of General Motors Corp. before the end of the year dimmed Thursday, with a leading Senate Democrat pointing to a lack of political will for a package and the top House Republican assailing the plans.

Skidding Auto Makers View Interactive

See what Ford, GM have been up to in recent years as their stock price and sales declined. Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd said he knew of no Republicans who would support the Democrats' $25 billion proposal and said he was disinclined to move a bill without bipartisan support.

"I'd want to be careful about bringing up a proposition that might fail," given that a rescue plan would likely fare better under a President-elect Barack Obama administration, Sen. Dodd (D., Conn.) told reporters on Capitol Hill. "There's some political considerations that need to be made over the next few days."

Prominent Republicans have questioned bailing out Detroit's long-struggling auto makers, and partisan differences threatened to derail the Democrats' plans. House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio said Thursday that a multibillion-dollar rescue of Detroit auto makers would be "neither fair to taxpayers nor sound fiscal policy" without requiring dramatic reforms of the companies.

[Mr. Blonde]

He has been soft on spending, earmarks, ethics.

As leader he does bear the brunt of criticism for these things. However, the vast majority of republicans have been soft on all of these issues as well. Not a lot of options if you want someone hard on these things.

[factoryrat]

Let the big three collapse. And when they collapse, they will take out all of the infrastructure that supports them,(i.e. their suppliers). A little known fact is that these suppliers also support the transplants,(Honda, Toyota, Nissan, etc). Chevy’s, Toyotas, Dodges, Hondas, and others share more components than you can imagine. If the suppliers go belly up due to the big three, the transplant companies will take just as big of a hit.

[counterpunch]

The party leader’s job is to set the agenda and keep the members in line.
Boner never set a clear agenda, much less a conservative one.

[Grampa Dave]

U.S.News & World Report
10 Cars That Sank Detroit
Friday November 14, 5:34 pm ET

By Rick Newman

The global financial crisis is suffocating the Detroit automakers, but the problems at General Motors, Ford, and Chrysler have been festering for years—even when the mighty “Big Three” were earning billions. Aging factories, inflexible unions, arrogant executives and shoddy quality have all damaged Detroit. Now, with panicky consumers fleeing showrooms, catastrophe looms: Without a dubious federal bailout, all three automakers face the prospect of bankruptcy.

There will be plenty of business-school case studies analyzing all the automakers’ wrong turns. But, as they say in the industry, it all comes down to product. So here are 10 cars that help explain the demise of Detroit:

Excerpt: Go to the link below for the story:

http://biz.yahoo.com/usnews/081114/14_10_cars_that_sank_detroit.html?.&.pf=insurance