Posted on 11/17/2008 8:43:45 PM PST by Extremely Extreme Extremist
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Prospects dimmed on Monday for the $25 billion bailout that U.S. automakers say they desperately need to get through a bleak and dangerous December.
Though all sides agree that Detroit's Big Three carmakers are in peril, battered by the economic meltdown that has choked their sales and frozen loans, the White House and congressional Democrats are headed for stalemate over how much government money should go toward helping them.
Behind the logjam is a troubling reality for the car companies: Bailout fatigue has set in at the White House and on Capitol Hill, where many in both parties have spent the past few weeks being berated by constituents for agreeing to the $700 billion Wall Street rescue.
(Excerpt) Read more at biz.yahoo.com ...
This is typical left-wing politics here. No Republican should support a bailout to Detroit. Why should they? UAW members worked to defeat them in consecutive elections, Republicans are going to get blamed if the bailout doesn't work and they sure in Hell won't get credit if it succeeds.
Looking bleak for the horse and buggy industry as well.
I bet that the RINOs and the Stupid party will do it in the end, anyway. I’d really like to know, just for curiosity’s sake, what is really behind this deal with the devil that the Congressional Republicans seem to have made.
The ‘big 3’ should get NO bailout!
They are on the verge of bankruptcy for a reason. Throwing them a bunch of money will only delay the inevitable.
shoot...bailing out the Wall Street plutocrats ....no prob....bailing out the working class Joe’s ....fugedaboudit.
They don’t call it the Stupid Party for nothing. Nothing for Detroit...nothing for Wall Street.
It is called “scare tactics”. And it worked the first time around with the socialist bank bailout. Now it is a case of how many jobs will be lost when the “Big 3” shut down.
Guess what - they NEED to shut down - and reorganize with a whole new approach to the car manufacturing business.
#1 - encourage real innovation and design
#2 - Dump the UAW
#3 - Dump the idiot CEO and management who have run the companies in the dirt.
#4 - take lessons from those who are still making money, even with the serious decline in sales -
#5 - did I mention dumping the UAW?
Might help if the Feds quit tying hands as well..
I hear slide rule manufacturers are also in trouble...they need assistance...they make perfectly good slide rules, but with Union costs skyrocketing and being a little slow to adjust to a changing market, to which they were slow to respond...
Brotherrrrrrrrrrrr can you sparrrrreee me a dime....
Let them fail.
Alternately, let them declare Chap 13; ditch the gold-plated union pensions and retiree benefits, cushy union contracts, etc.; then develop and manufacture cars that people really want to buy at a reasonable price.
THAT is all the “bailout” the big three need.... or deserve.
The airlines were told … NO, and they made adjustments and are surviving. Say No to the auto industry and they will either survive or bust …
Correct, but this is not so much a bailout for Joe Sixpack living in his three bedroom ranch in Lorain County, but for the mental incompetants like Waggoner who have shamed Alfred Sloan's legacy.
Once that happened, it was only a matter of time. We are watching the Republican Party go the way of the Whigs.
And they deserve it.
L
Bush was gung ho for the $700 billion bailout.
Bailout is not going to save GM and others. US consumers are tapped out of credit to buy anything. Right now they take whatever cash they can get to pay down their debt and ongoing bills. No one has equity or extra cash to buy big ticket items. People will fix up their cars or buy used cars before they go out to buy a new one. Here are some grim stats - we have a 14 trillion dollar GDP, hobbled by 1 trillion in negative home equity and over 2 trillion in 401 (k) losses. That is 3 trillion (out of 14) not avilable for the consumer to borrow against to buy goods and services. Consumer debt is 9 trillion and government operating debt is 15 trillion. BO is trapped, can’t raise taxes and will make inflation worst with borrowing. If he is smart, he should fess up that he is not a natural born US citizen and exit stage ASAP and leave VP Biden with the mess.
Any Republican congressmen that vote for this stupid auto bailout, should remember what happened to Idiot McCain, when against overwhelming opposition from Republican voters, McCain turned round and voted for the last stupid $700 bailout. McCain ended up getting 4 million less Republican votes in 2008, than Bush did in 2004.
Serves the idiot damn right.
We are not gonna forget stupid Republican congressmen that keep voting for bailouts come 2010.
I don’t care if this sounds cruel or cold-hearted
Before January 3rd of next year, when the more Democrat Congress is sworn in, I just hope and pray that GM’s cash loss gets to the point where they’re only choice is to seek bankruptcy protection, either Chapter 7 or Chapter 11. Ford and Chrysler should go along with GM for good measure.
If this were any other American industry other than the Auto Industry, they would already be under bankruptcy protection
It’s their only real hope of having even reduced viability in the rest of the 21st Century and beyond
I hope they file Chapter 11. That way the union drones can get a more realistic contract and the company can stay in business. No need to bail out a union. They all need to go away.
Obama’s primary interest is not saving GM, Ford and Chrysler. His primary interest is saving the United Auto Workers’ Union. He wants the big three alive enough to keep paying protection money to the UAW...not to fix the American Auto Industry. If he knew anything about business or economics he’d understand that Chapter 11 would be a God send for the auto industry but since he has never held a real job or taken a real economics course (Sharia doesn’t count), how could he know? The only thing he knows is that the Union shoved millions into his campaign and forced the rank and file to canvas for him all so that this payback day would be waiting for him after the election.
Not even president yet and Obama’s integrity is being sacrificed on the altar of necessity.
I retired from IBM in 1995 with a full pension and medical, dental, and vision benefits. But I have to pay over $200 per month for the benefits, plus deductibles and co-pays. The auto workers, current and retired, need to do the same.
The car companies should not get a dime until they reform their byzantine work rules, bring their legacy and labor costs into line with the American operations of Honda, Toyota, Nissan, and the rest of the foreign manufacturers, who employ American labor to build cars for the American market AND MAKE MONEY DOING IT.
And the UNIONS need some skin in the game as well. They had hundreds of millions to spend on electing democrats that needs to be directed to the benefit of their MEMBERS instead of their bosses.
I call my senators EVERY DAY (M-F) to warn them to reject this by any means necessary.
McClame will reach across and help the crats. What a candidate. The MSM will love him again.
As I read in a column last week, Obama’s message of change conflicts with his proposed programs and policies, which are just retreads of failed policies in the past, and which are designed to either keep America from actually moving forward or to try to move America back to its past.
Very soon into Obama’s administration, the breaking points between his change message and his programs will start appearing one by one, and gradually more and more Obama voters will start experiencing what I call Voter’s Remorse
Chapter 11 is the first step in the healing process. Postponing the inevitable won’t help - but it might make Obama look better in his first months in office.
In your whole post, I only found one error - and that is your last line... Obama and integrity have never belonged in the same sentence. Obama has never had any integrity. This is nothing new for him.
Obama won. The Democrats control BOTH houses of Congress. Who cares what the Republicans have to say? Answer: Democrats. Blame the Republicans if aide doesn't pass and the big three collapse. Or... blame the Republicans if aide passes and the economy craters under the weight of all of these bail outs. Either way, its the EVIL Republicans and they did it!!!
This is not a bailout for the workers or even the companies, it is a bailout for the UAW... I say no!
HELL NO!...have 'em, declare Bankruptcy (voiding the UAW labor contracts, enforce "the Beck Decision"), kill the CAFARE (mph) Requirement (let the Free-market work, not the ecomarxist-terrorists) and have a coherent energy policy. (like DRILL / MINE, Refine, "Let loose" the Nuclear Industry)...
finally, Tellin' Congresscritters to "GO TO HELL!"..again, let the Free-market work 
Pleaseeeeeeeeeeee let McCain vote FOR this, I want the people in AZ good and ready to replace him in 2010.
If Bush had not already given them $25 billion they would be in reorganization already.
i thought we already gave them billions in LOANS how much could they possibly need?
This is very interesting...it will read: In the first 100 days of Obama’s presidency he saw the collapse of the US auto Industry with the loss of 47,000 UAW union jobs and the loss of hundreds of thousands of other union jobs for the peripheral service industries...
The Pubs have Obama at a real fork: if the US auto industry collapses it will be his fault...If it survives but the auto makers file for Ch 11, the unions will have to renegotiate their contracts and likely will lose some pay,benefits, and suffer layoffs...But the only way the auto industry can survive is by filing Chapter 11’s, making the cuts and taking the bailout money..There is no other way of unloading their legacy costs than by Ch 11...whichever way they turn, Obama is skewered and to make it up to the unions he is going to have to throw many billions of $$ their way, it won’t end with $25 billion, that will just be a start...The Dems already know this, that is why they are holding onto the bailout money, knowing they will need it to save the auto industry and the union jobs..
The other day Sen.Schumer said screw the financial industry, save the auto sector...Is he mad?...throw the entire banking system under the bus just because it is non-union?...with goofy ideas like that we won’t have a banking system or an auto industry...
So welcome to reality Mr. President...not even socialism can save him from a roasting on this one...this will be a major train wreck on his watch....
The banks were not bailed out. The customers of the banks were the ones bailed out.
The stockholders have been savaged. A lot of CEOs got canned. And a lot of employees got fired or their pay reduced.
The auto company employees and management want to keep all their jobs and their pay.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.