Bill Kristol defends UAW. ' I don't think it's very smart for a bunch of Southern Republicans to decide the future' of GOP
By John Amato Monday Dec 15, 2008 4:00pm
Bill Kristol surprisingly backed up the UAW and the Democratic Party's plan of trying to offer a bridge loan to the Big 3 and not try to be "union busters." It's not out of any love for unions, but all about politics. As we saw with the AutoGate Memo, the Republican leadership decided to kill the rescue plan/bridge loan to the Big 3 purely for political reasons. Those reasons are to destroy the UAW and try to make them the scapegoats. Kristol -- who as you know is not on my team -- believes that the Southern Strategy of attacking workers is a huge political mistake.
Kristol: I don't think it's very smart for a bunch of Southern Republicans to decide that the future of the Republican party is to beat up working class union members in states like Michigan, Indiana and Ohio. The UAW is in a lot of trouble, they've shrunk by 2/3's in the last years...
An average automobile, 10% of the cost comes from wages and they were going to cut wages by ten or twenty percent, so it's one or two percent of the cost of the automobile. To have a huge fight for that. I think it was a mistake for the Republicans,
He's thinking of this in political terms for Republicans, and actually gets honest when he says that it's not the union workers or their wages at fault here. I was not in favor of a Car Czar because I don't trust Bush to make the choice based on the interests of the working class, but at least they see the problem this could cause our entire economy if the Republicans in Congress bankrupt the auto industry.
On the other hand, if Republicans want to immolate themselves into even further irrelevancy, I'm inclined to let them. The trick is to keep them from taking the whole country down along with them.
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Billy the Bloody does not like Southerners? Hehehehe
Amato says:
I hope and think they will not win this one because it is so blatantly obvious what they are doing. The deal is to remember and file it away to use against them in the future and keep fighting for the U.S. auto industry.
The worse the economy gets under President Obama, the more likely a Republican President in 4 years' time. The more damage the GOP can do to the economy now that they have lost, the greater the damage the Democrats will have to try to fix. If an economic downturn/recession is still going on 2012, the GOP will regain power.
they want to. Turn the party over to that bag full of nutted up crackers.
Die Thug Party. Die.
Ritz crackers :-P
soggy, store brand, saltines.
(no value, unimaginative, bland)
Ritz cracks have some value.
Cheap crackers that poured themselves on a 'chili' that was imaginary and corrupt (their neocon ideology) that they hoped would make the crackers more appealing but just made them seem less so.
The trick is to keep them from taking the whole country down along with them.
But it's going to take a lot of thought.
Not only are you musically inclined, Andy, you demonstrate an excellent grasp of science and physics. Outstanding!
Or I just really liked playing Mousetrap as a kid. :D
I loved my Mousetrap game. The only thing that could have made it cooler would be if there had been different ways to put it together. and if it were made out of Legos. That's 2 things.
I didn't really like playing the game- I liked playing with the game.
That said, iirc, you couldn't really change the cool part of Mousetrap- the contraption- because the aim was not to get caught on the space where your piece was caged.
And, yeah, Legos...still cool. 43 years old aand I'm still considering Legos as my gift for myself this year.
there was a computer game out a few years ago where you could build (Rube, not Lucianne or Jonah, the Doughy Pantload) Goldberg-like contraptions. Never did try that one out, but it looked as if it had potential.
Crazy Machines??
When I was a kid we played that game whenever we visited my cousins, which was almost every weekend. Good times.
but I loved the diagram :)
It's fine. The Republican party has been losing votes since 2002. Let them continue to step on the middle class voters and we wont see a Republican majority for another 30 years. This is their plan? Cutting wages of blue collar workers? As John said, great that they are digging themselves deeper, but let's hope it doesn't destroy the manufacturing sector of this country on their way. I pray for our workers.
it's the fact that all those blue collar "Reagan Democrats" are retired auto workers now, and the GOP is doing everything they can to screw them out of their pensions and health care. When you dance with the devil, you can't just walk away.
does anyone really think that congressional republicans will put aside partisan politics for the sake of the nation?
i can understand being a republican, but i do not know how the rank and file republicans can think to vote for any one of these idiots. whether its the "culture warriors" or those who are just that steeped in ideology, it should be plainly obvious by now that the no-compromise solution leads to more and serious problems.
I think you are from Ky. What is the feeling there?
it's sorta mixed down here. louisville is home to two ford plants, bowling green is home to the corvette plant and georgetown has the toyota plant. i would like to think that mitch cares about the plants in his "hometown" (addison mitchell mcconnell is from alabama) or for an american icon like the corvette. but then again, he doesn't call kentucky home but for one year out of 6.
but the people aren't too concerned about that. most of the talk is about the budget shortfall that the idiots in the general assembly have left us with because the majority republican senate leader absolutely refuses to pass any legislation that has a tax increase in it. he believes in "belt tightening". he's also an acolyte for obstructionist mitch, so you can imagine how things are on a regular basis.
saying No to the bailout (on a NOLA.com news website) and the comments were by far and away more supportive of him than not.
the word "think." My son is a fundy and he does not think.
That must make Thanksgiving at your house interesting to say the least.
Beat the GOP to death with this in the next election.
that even Bill Kristol is admiting that UAW labor costs only constitute 10% of the cost of the automobile, and cutting their wages by 20% (down to the levels of the Nissan workers) will only change the cost by 2%.
Write home! Kristol got something RIGHT for a change. I guess even a broken clock is right twice a day.
Even a blind squirrel can find a nut.
Because it doesn't assume frequency. ;^D
Why isn't the question, "What brand(s) of car(s) do you own?" of the shitheads in the south that bitch about the Unions? They want to finger-point at the Unions (members of which buy the Union made cars!), whats in their driveway?
I have a feeling that the answer would be fairly predictable. They'll have a FORD in their driveway, and all $3 million of their hedge fund invested in Nissan and Hyundai.
Seriously, it was humiliating enough when somebody asked John Kerry if he owned an SUV. He slithered out of it by saying that HE didn't, but his bat-shit crazy wife did, and who was he to argue with her?
The BMW plant in SC is a hoot. Pay starts at $12.50 an hour. What a bimmer bummer for the workers.
show that, with bonuses, the Toyota workers made more than the GM workers, averaging almost $30.00 an hour versus $27.00?
These guys can probably convince most of the country that union workers are overpaid. Unfortunately alot of people who are not in a union (and they are shrinking) can be made to believe that the REASON they are making cars no one is buying is BECAUSE of these union workers. However, for the God Bless America party, it's so fitting these frauds are made to go public with their attempts to strangle the one thing we still produce in this country, automobiles.
Explain that to your flag waving, Bible reading, right wing Southern base.
UAW workers went from a bit over $32/hr in wages in '06 to just over $28/hr in '07, where Toyota workers averaged about $25/hr. Thing is, the UAW average will continue to drop as new workers, with lower base pay, replace future retirees. And the workers at the foreign plants aren't quite the legacies as are the UAW folks, seeing that many of the UAW workers have been on the job longer than foreign-owned US plants have existed. So expect the average wages of the workers at foreign-owned plants to rise before they fall.
All unions face a "two tier wage" or, as management calls it, "competitive rate", which is to say half the pay of the older worker. This is always contractual, which means that there is rarely any chance for new hires to work up to the max. rate of pay, they are permanently at the lower scale. Once a concession is made by unions these days, the chance of ever regaining the conceded issue is about zero.
Nothing for the guy on Main Street.
southern strategy of dicKKK noxin.
"On the other hand, if Republicans want to immolate themselves into even further irrelevancy, I'm inclined to let them. The trick is to keep them from taking the whole country down along with them."
Bill Kristol said that?!?!?!? He must be something rare--not a jingoistic, but a truly patriotic Republican. They're getting as rare as Christians who believe in the teachings of Jesus.
John Amato said that.
Even Kristol can see how stupid these southern "pubes" are. Although Croker and Shellby talk a big scam, it is that: a big scam. As the news comes out that the feds pay a subsidy of $5000 per employee there in the land of cotton, to Mercedes, Toyota, Nissan, Honda and etc...then the $45.00 per hour (plus health benefits, plus land subsidies,plus additional tax concessions) don't look so cheap. There's more to the Croker/Shellby scam and it will be revealled soon. Just wait for the AFL/CIO and The Teamsters to get involved. It's gonna be a mobfest on Croker and Shellby. Even smilin' Jack can see this coming. Good bye GOP! Thank your southern carpet shaggin stars! Your greed got ya caught!
Well Kristol...I don't think it is right that you continue to have a voice and get so much play. You simply are not credible because time and time again you have been completely wrong.
I have wasted too much time on this piecs of crap already.
If what the the Southern Republican senators were doing wasn't so destructive to the GOP brand, Kristol would be right there to put the lock on the doors of the UAW.
The Republicans that have been the most vocal against helping the auto sector have been southern and from the states with large foreign auto manufacturers. I guess it is natural that they would try and protect these large foreign employers in their states, so we cannot fault them.
However, what amazes me is that these guys have any power. I guess with the Republicans now being so depleted they represent the only Republicans left.
The reality is that these Republicans from Alabama, Kentucky and South Carolina represent such a small portion of both the U.S. population and the economy that it is amazing that these guys can basically dictate what this country can and cannot do. We need to find a way to neutralize these guys for the benefit of the country, although if we let them continuing to act the way they do it will be to the detriment of their own party, as they can kiss the states of Michigan, Ohio and Indiana good-bye, just like they did with Nevada, New Mexico and Colorado, and likely Arizona, with the immigration debate.
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