Posted on 11/26/2008 2:46:07 PM PST by ari-freedom
Back home after the congressional circus recessed with no relief for the working men and women of America's auto industry, I was driving past a Detroit assembly plant when Bob Seger blared from my speakers: "The big line moved one mile an hour So loud it really hurt The big line moved so loud It really hurt Back in '55 We were makin' Thunderbirds..." It wasn't the "big line" that was so loud it really hurt during the House and Senate hearings on the auto industry's bridge loan. What hurt were the condemnations and ridicule both political parties, late night talk shows and even "Saturday Night Live" delivered at the expense of America's auto industry. Implicit in their attacks was an inexplicable ignorance of the human cost we've endured throughout our auto industry's painful restructuring.
(Excerpt) Read more at mccotter.house.gov ...
Someone p[ointed out on Hannity yesterday that the current value of the stock in all three companies was about $7 billion. Far less than the cost of “bailout”.
Maybe someone needs to step up and buy the companies on the basis of NO MORE UNION CONTRACTS.
Bridge to what? A span that ends out in the middle of the water is called a pier, not a bridge. And the financial instrument the auto manufacturers are asking for is properly termed a “pier loan”. We can debate whether or not to give it to them, but first we should be honest about what “it” is.
There are 3 parties that need to work something out. The UAW needs to work on a cheaper contract, the companies need to learn to run a business and the government needs to stop imposing regulations on them.
“
IMO, you are dean on on all three counts.
IMO, you are dean on on all three counts.””
DEAD ON...
It's not my fault they let the unions run over them and couldn't figure out how to build a car lots of people wanted to buy.
Maybe the automakers should re-organize as banking firms, then the government would literally throw money at them. It works well for Citicorp.
a bridge to nowhere
No they don’t. They are going to take that money out of the country to build cars in foreign countries. It is another wealth redistribution act for the globalists.
Et tu, McCotter.
No one in DC is willing to stand for principle when the going gets tough. An auto bailout would provide some short-term relief in return for more long-term pain, which is the kind of expediency that got us into these multiple disasters in the first place.
IMHO, the people of this country shouldn’t give one damn cent to anyone of these industries that are part of this $700 Billion bailout. This bailout should not exist in the first place. If these corporations make stupid decisions that cause their demise, let them fall. They have no one to blame but themselves for their poor judgement. They can’t blame the government, the unions, the markets, the economy, or any other scapegoat. Let them all fail. None of them are too big to fail. Maybe then they can take their hard learned lessons and come up with some better ideas for developing more robust industries.
They already relocated most of their suppliers out of the country. Ford and GM subsidiaries actually do pretty well in Europe, Asia, and Australia. It might be a wise move for them. Liquidate their assets in the U.S., kick 1/10th of the U.S. workforce to the curb, dump their pensions in Uncle Sam’s lap, and laugh their asses off as they prosper in more industry hospitable countries.
Bankruptcy is the only way to reduce the number of dealers and brands.
When GM discontinued its Oldsmobile brand, a huge number of Olds dealers sued GM and have been paid more than $1 billion so far.
The lawsuits over reducing dealers and brands would swamp GM.
Bankruptcy is the only viable option for GM. There is nothing else that makes any sense anymore.
Right. They are still incorporated in the US and US taxpayers are still on the hook for them even though they have shifted their allegiance to foreign possibly enemy countries. A great deal, to be sure, but not for the US citizen.
They can't cancel these contracts until they declare bankruptcy, which is why they should declare bankruptcy.
It seems to me that Everyone says “We can’t let them fail”, I feel that is a bunch of crap! If it’s because of the thousands employed...why is that any different than a smaller company going out of business? Just because of the number of employees? I don’t think so....idk how we allowed the market (if it’s even true) to rely on the stink 3 to prop up this economy.
IMHO let them fail miserably and teach not just them but the UAW a lesson and get them out of the Libs’ pockets!!!
Oh and by the way, why do you hate Americans?
the reason why the big 3 made so many mistakes is because they probably thought they were so important, the govt would just have to bail them out, no matter what they did.
I don’t, I really don’t. The point I’m trying to drive home is that there is a coordinated effort to run manufacturing out of this country. In the last year, I’ve been seeing companies dropping like flies, not large corporations but smaller companies that employed the vast majority of local residents. These are companies that supply products to the auto industry, and they’re being lumped in with the “lazy UAW workers”, even though they’re not union, or receive anywhere near the same compensation. Then on top of it all, they get laid off because their employer was forced to build a plant in China, because GM or Chrysler want them to have manufacturing capability there. To sum it up for you, I don’t hate Americans, I hate seeing good, honest, hard working Americans being thrown to the wolves because they won’t work as slave labor for sh!t wages. If this is what the big three want, then it might be a good idea for them to pack up and move somewhere else. The transplant automakers have no problem dealing with these small companies, and in the long run it will work out best for them.
Slave labor is also my concern. The arbiter of “free trade” the WTO specifically admonishes first world countries against discriminating against a potential ‘trade’ partner due to their political system. In other words, it was laid out long ago, to keep from trading with a communist country was against “free trade”. In 1996 Congress passed a resolution that trading with known slave labor countries, like China, was against American values, but that movement was quickly quashed by the Clintons, Dianne Feinstein et al.
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