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(before it went very far south )
With the GM bankruptcy forging ahead, and news of plant and dealership closings and sales of companies formerly part of the GM family (can't say the loss of Hummer is any sort of tragedy) pending, I got to thinking about the impression GM made on me as a kid - growing up and getting my first car (it was, in all honesty a 1956 Plymouth, but that's another story) and how the American auto industry, the whole car culture in fact was such an integral part of our lives. How commercials were as much of our culture as the cars themselves and how indelible some of those commercials were to our place in time. I've assembled a montage of some of the memorable ones, not all of them - but enough to make the events of the past few weeks just a bit sad.
It was smart to address this, because the wingnut echo chamber in talk radio is pushing the idea that "fascist" Obama wants to take over and run more private industries:
WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama said he wants to get the government out of the private sector as fast as possible -- but that as long as his administration is acting as a major shareholder for large sectors of American commerce, from cars to finance, he won't hesitate to shape decisions at those firms.
President Barack Obama speaks during a news conference marking his 100th day in office in the East Room at the White House on Wednesday.
In his most extensive public comments to date on the principles guiding government-ownership stakes, Mr. Obama said at a news conference Wednesday that "I don't think that we should micromanage." But he added that, in the name of protecting taxpayer dollars, the government would help troubled companies make "tough decisions based on realistic assumptions."
"Like any investor, the American taxpayer has the right to scrutinize what's being proposed," he said at news conference marking his 100th day in office. "I don't know how to create [an] affordable, well-designed, plug-in hybrid, but I know that if the Japanese can...then doggone it, the American people should be able to do the same."
[...] In addressing the government's role in the private sector, Mr. Obama said his administration had no choice but to step in as the financial and auto sectors were collapsing and that "our first role should be shareholders that are looking to get out."
"I don't want to run auto companies. I don't want to run banks. I've got two wars I've got to run already. I've got more than enough to do. So the sooner we can get out of that business, the better off we're going to be," he said. "I want to disabuse people of this notion that somehow we enjoy, you know, meddling in the private sector."
John Rich performs his new country song, "Shutting Detroit Down," which in the past two weeks is becoming a working-class anthem. Gee, I wonder why? Maybe the media bobbleheads can tell us where all this crazy, wacky populist rage is coming from...
Me, I'm just flabbergasted by today's news. All those things Obama's saying to Detroit, a city of working people left devastated, about sacrifice and restructuring - why isn't he saying them to Wall Street, too?
WASHINGTON -- President Barack Obama on Monday will reject requests for almost $22 billion in new taxpayer bailout money for General Motors Corp. and Chrysler, saying the car makers have failed to take steps to ensure their viability.
[...] A senior administration official, briefing reporters late Sunday night on the condition of anonymity in order to speak freely, said Obama will call for more sacrifice from carmakers, their investors and automotive unions.
Billionaire bankers (and their investors) walk away from the table with their pockets stuffed with taxpayer cash while members of the auto workers union are told they'll have to sacrifice even more - in this case, the Obama administration wants the companies to get rid of "old liabilities" - i.e. retiree pensions. (You know, while bankers complain about having to sell the house in the Hamptons.)
No, Obama's not talking about the insolvent banks. He's talking about Detroit. Could he make it any more obvious that the wealthy are a protected class?
"If they're not willing to make the changes and the restructurings that are necessary, then I'm not willing to have taxpayer money chase after bad money."
I'm not even arguing with the concept that deep cuts have to be made now to save the industry for later. For all I know, the union really is dragging their feet in negotiations. But how can the administration not see how it looks to the rest of the country?
This USA Today/Gallup poll is just plain dumb. By using vague wording, they push the idea that consumers will buy cars from bankrupt auto companies - but that's misleading.
Jack Nerad, market analyst for car-shopping site KBB.com, says concerns about warranties and parts still would dissuade buyers. "People will say they will consider a lot of things, but when it gets right down to actually putting their money on the line … it narrows pretty significantly."
The cars themselves aren't even the problem. What will happen is, if the automakers go bankrupt and don't pay their outstanding bills, the manufacturers of OEM and after-market parts will go under, too.
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.
WASHINGTON -- The White House tossed out no lifeline for the teetering auto industry Sunday, although President George W. Bush reiterated that he was considering using money from the $700 billion financial bailout fund to provide loans to the carmakers.
"An abrupt bankruptcy for autos could be devastating for the economy," Bush told reporters Monday aboard Air Force One during an unannounced trip to Iraq and Afghanistan. "We're now in the process of working with the stakeholders on a way forward. We're not quite ready to announce that yet."
Bush wouldn't give a precise timetable but said, "This will not be a long process because of the economic fragility of the autos."
Because, you know, the autos go bad if they sit too long!
Mitt Romney was wanking forth on MTP Sunday about the horrendous disadvantage American automakers have because of labor costs, only briefly mentioning the 800-pound gorilla in the room -- namely, health-care costs -- as "benefits."
Gov. Jennifer Granholm of Michigan set him straight:
One of the reasons there is a cost disadvantage is that other countries provide health care for their citizens. In America, we put that entire burden on business.
Mittens nonetheless tries to regurgitate the "$70-an-hour" lie:
Romney: The companies across the ocean have come here, made plants in the U.S. -- Nissan, Toyota, and Honda -- they're able to make cars at $45 an hour labor costs plus benefits and legacy costs, our cost is $73 an hour --
Granholm: It is not! That has been totally debunked -- now, you know, Mitt Romney, that this is not --
Romney: Labor costs and legacy costs and benefits is $73 an hour.
Maybe Romney should ask those companies where they stand on national subsidization of their industry. Because back in Japan, they understand that underwriting their manufacturing capacity is the key to a competitive economy ... which is why they keep the yen artificially low. This subsidization is part of why those same automakers can operate at lower cost here.
Romney and the Republicans have made it clear that Detroit can go suck eggs. They just don't want to say it on TV.
We have been hearing since the election that Republicans want to re-brand their image. During the debate on the auto bailout, we have seen their new ideas on two important areas affecting the public – the economy and health care. For the economy, their mantra has become 'If you have a good paying job, you are paid too much. If you have a pension, it should be reduced.' In regards to health care, their position has changed from blocking universal health care to wanting to reduce health care for those who already have health insurance.
Will these platforms help them win elections? I think not. To gain seats in Washington, they will either have to change their beliefs, or hide their agenda with political slogans and hope most voters have not learned that a person should be judged by what they do, not what they say.
Of course, Republicans might pick up votes if they could prove they believe what they say. This could be done by 1) forgoing their government health care plan, and 2) reducing their salaries to that of non-union auto workers (which is what they asked Detroit's auto workers to do) and scale back on their pensions. If they do that, I might vote for them. After all, taxpayers are funding Congressmen and Senators, why shouldn't the same standards be applied to our elected officials as they want to apply to the auto industry?
Sen. John McCain told George Stephanopoulos that he doesn't support a government bailout or bridge loan for the Big Three auto makers.
"I think that if not bankruptcy, certainly a bankruptcy-like solution, which forces everybody to sit down at the table and redo all these agreements," said McCain
A little more background on the Senate Republicans who sandbagged the auto industry bailout - and why:
The fiercest opposition to the loan proposal -- and nearly a third of the 35 votes against ending debate on the deal -- came from Southern Republicans, and the ringleaders of the opposition all come from states with a major foreign auto presence. Not coincidentally, nearly all of those states -- except Kentucky -- are also "right-to-work" states, which means no union contracts for most of the employees at the foreign plants. The Detroit bailout fell victim to a nasty confluence of home-state economic interests and anti-union sentiment among Republicans.
This week Southern Republicans had a chance to go to bat for foreign automakers while simultaneously busting a union. At a hearing last week, Corker explained that his constituents "have a tough time thinking about us loaning money to companies that are paying way, way above industry standard to workers." Which may explain why his proposed alternative to the loan agreement between Congress and the White House would have required the United Auto Workers to agree to significant wage cuts next year, based on a spurious claim that union workers earn significantly more than non-union workers.
Even George W. Bush's White House didn't push to crush the UAW the way Corker and his buddies did, say Democrats involved in the negotiations with the administration. "It was all about the unions," one senior Democratic aide said. "This is political payback for lots of things, and probably even more to come." Labor officials expect Republicans to keep taking shots at unions whenever they can. "This cynical stance they took last night -- they're willing to jeopardize 3 million jobs so they could gain some advantage in their war against unions -- is appalling," said Bill Samuel, the chief lobbyist for the AFL-CIO.
As the Republican Party consolidates in the South, the fight this week could turn out to be a preview of many battles to come over Barack Obama's economic plans. If those plans involve the domestic auto industry, the GOP pushback will come from somewhere down I-65, the new auto corridor that runs from Kentucky south to Alabama. Expect to hear more not just from the very vocal Bob Corker, but from the rest of a core group of Southern senators whose bread is buttered by the Japanese, Germans and Koreans.
Go read the rest. You'll want to know the players in the years ahead.
Look, I don't think I've ever urged anyone to take Dick Cheney's advice on anything. But the morons/Republicans in the Senate really might want to pay attention at least:
Bush personally lobbied recalcitrant Senate Republicans after Vice President Dick Cheney failed to round up support Wednesday during a contentious two-hour meeting.
"If we don't do this, we will be known as the party of Herbert Hoover forever," Cheney told them, according to a Senate Republican aide, evoking the president whose inaction is widely blamed for helping trigger the Great Depression in the early 1930s.
This, for lack of a better word, is madness. But what I really don't understand is why the rest of the Republican caucus in the Senate went along with this. Corker, Shelby, and DeMint are three far-right lawmakers from the Deep South, but they were only able to pull this off last night because there weren't enough reasonable Republicans left.
Now, ironically enough, their only hope of escaping the Hoover Mantle lies with the Modern Hoover himself, George W. Bush.
As a result, the hypotheticals about the domino effect of the companies’ troubles through the vast network of auto supplier firms — which employ more than twice as many workers as the carmakers — are becoming real.
General Motors and Chrysler, for example, owe their suppliers a total of roughly $10 billion for parts that have been delivered. G.M. has held off paying them for weeks, and Chrysler is paying in small increments. But the cash shortages at G.M. and Chrysler are getting more severe, according to their top executives and other officials.
“I don’t think that suppliers will be able to get through the month without continued payments on their receivables,” said Neil De Koker, chief executive of the Original Equipment Suppliers Association in Troy, Mich., a trade group.
When suppliers big and small start failing, the flow of parts to every automaker in the country will be disrupted because as suppliers typically sell their products to both American and foreign brands with plants in the United States.
Since Rep. Richard Shelby and his gang of blue collar haters have blocked the bridge loan, the Democratic Party is asking Bush to let go of the funds from TARP to help save the auto industry.
Dear Mr. President:
This week the U.S. domestic auto industry submitted their comprehensive plans for restructuring their companies and moving promptly to produce more fuel-efficient, advanced technology vehicles which are essential for their economic future and for the environmental needs of our world. Hearings are underway in the House and Senate Committees into those plans, but it is already clear that action should be taken by the federal government to facilitate the implementation of these restructuring efforts and prevent the severe impacts to our economy that would result from the bankruptcy of one or more of these companies.
We have previously urged that $25 billion of the funds provided in the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act (EESA) can and should be used for emergency bridge loans for the domestic auto industry. The response from the Treasury to date has been that these funds should only be used to protect the U.S. financial sector. What is becoming clear, however, is that the failure of the Big 3 would indeed have a major direct and negative impact on the financial sector, not just on the economy as a whole.
We again urge you to use funds available to you through the EESA to provide emergency bridge loans to the auto industry...read on
I don't really understand why the Democrats don't say they're trying to pass the "Christmas Rescue Act of 2008" and accuse the Republicans of trying to kill Santa.
Watching the Republicans try to bust the union is sickening... I didn't see them micro-manage wages for Wall Street employees.
Republicans spent the last eight years like drunken sailors on their first shore leave after years at sea. They wantonly drained the treasury of billions and billions of dollars on harebrained schemes to induce "birthpangs of democracy" around the world, chasing phantom enemies and enriching their defense contractor contributors. They created a lobbying culture so corrupt it finally collapsed of its own weight. They deregulated the financial industry so thoroughly that it created an elaborate ponzi scheme that has just about destroyed the world economy.
They have no standing to lecture anyone about responsibility, fiscal or otherwise, and no right to obstruct the cure for the problem they created.
Bipartisanship is awesome!
Bob Corker thanks everyone that has been involved and I'm watching Richard Shelby tell me that he fears this is just a down payment on failure. Listening to that blowhard talk about the competitiveness of the "south" is like sticking pins in my eyes.
UPDATE: Carl Levin: via email
Sen. Reid responds:
"By rejecting every good-faith bipartisan compromise – including those from the White House and Senator Bob Corker – it is now abundantly clear that Republicans have no interest in keeping the Big Three from collapsing.
"Because Republicans failed to act, three million Americans are more likely than ever to lose their jobs and our economy is at risk of suffering even greater damage. Our hearts go out to those families who will now have to deal with this burden as the holidays near. "Republicans may think that rejecting this legislation sent a message to the auto industry. Instead, they sent a message to every single American that they are more interested in settling scores than solving problems."
The prospects of a $14 billion government rescue of the American auto industry seemed to vaporize Thursday as the Senate Republican leader, Mitch McConnell of Kentucky, spoke out forcefully against the bill, effectively ending its chances despite the urgings of the White House.
In a speech on the Senate floor, Mr. McConnell said he and other Republicans had drawn a clear distinction between the Treasury’s $700 billion economic stabilization, which they helped pass in October, and the proposal to aid the American automakers, which he said raised questions about which industries or individuals deserve help.
Wow, the Republicants are so worried about taxpayer money these days I often wonder where they disappeared when 9 billion dollars just vanished in the black hole of Iraq?
Nearly $9 billion of money spent on Iraqi reconstruction is unaccounted for because of inefficiencies and bad management, according to a watchdog report published Sunday. An inspector general's report said the U.S.-led administration that ran Iraq until June 2004 is unable to account for the funds.
An inspector general's report said the U.S.-led administration that ran Iraq until June 2004 is unable to account for the funds.
"Severe inefficiencies and poor management" by the Coalition Provisional Authority has left auditors with no guarantee the money was properly used," the report said.
These knuckleheads are going to let the auto companies go down in flames, but never lifted a finger when it came to funding Bush's war. For war, there is never enough funding for conservatives, but to help Americans ... Nada.
