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scrub jay at my feeder

Friday, December 12, 2008

Panic in Detroit



Well the Republican Senators have effectively signed the death sentence for General Motors and Chrysler with Ford barely hanging on. I still can't for the life of me figure out how the administration can give hundreds of billions of no strings attached dollars to banks that made godawful decisions but can't spare a measly 14 billion to save the American auto industry. An industry that saved our ass in World War II. For a paltry sum that equates to the cost of a week in Iraq for the U.S. military.

Lets put three and a half million more people out on the streets. All the little mom and pop vendors who depend on the auto industry to pay their bills, guess what, that check ain't coming.

Of course, the opposition stems from the red south, a region replete with foreign car manufacturers. But it would be cynical to think that they have any influence on their host state's stance on this issue, wouldn't it? Another pitched battle in the civil war - and they said we were still fighting over Vietnam...

McConnell and his gang sought to get their pound of flesh from the UAW and drive the final stake into the heart of the unions. I hope that Americans have a long memory about which party threw Detroit under the bus. The party with the born again fiscal conservatives. Thanks for the lump of coal and merry christmas.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

I agree!! I think that this is a ploy on the part of the Southern Senators to break the UAW. One of the things that has not been well known is that the foreign auto companies don't have the high "legacy" costs because the foreign countries provide health care to retirees as well as pensions. Those are costs that are carried directly by the Big Three and that adds to their costs.

The UAW has not always done the right thing ( but neither have the Big Three) and it is unfair to punish them and make them the fall guys for this whole mess.

If the Big Three are forced in to bankruptcy, things may turn out for them in the end, but, do we want to force them in to bankruptcy when the economy is so fragile. It is high stakes poker at this point.
(and I am one who has been critical of Detroit for many years... I have owned mostly foreign cars over the years... because I was always looking for better mileage and quality... my newest purchase is a Mini Cooper... speaking of good mileage and quality).

Anonymous said...

don't you think when you are in an industry you should have your finger on the pulse? You can blame alot of things like unions...but blame the guys running those companies. Who thought of producing a hummer when fuel and oil has always and I am saying always has been an issue? BIGGER trucks, Faster gas guzzler cars... you get my point fk em.