Senate Can't Get It Done: AutoMakers Get Nothing

got heard a lot of things bout this stuff..

 I can only say that watching millions of jobs lost and millions more people suffer- my own government watching and doing nothing- seems cruel and unconscionable.

Hmmm. Remember Katrina? How about thousands of people sitting on rooftops starving and drowning? How about thousands of American soldiers losing their lives for a lie?

Why would you expect compassion and a rising above politics at this point? The only thing that seems to be motivating is Dick Cheney's fear that the Republicans will lose votes for 50 years as "the party of Hoover" if they don't effect this bailout. But it's not for the average American. Sorry to be bitter, but the whole affair has left a very bad taste in my mouth. 

Blue State Cowgirl

This has infuriated me. 

I'm particularly irate at how the GOP decides NOW to take a stand for something when they whittled their spine away these last four years. WRONG TIME to take a stand.

There are a few things to set straight about this:

1) It's a BRIDGE LOAN. A LOAN. Not a BAILOUT. 

2) Much of the furor over this is because the Wall Street bailout - yes, THAT was a bailout - came without ANY restrictions. We were told that there would be instant relief! Weeks later there IS NO RELIEF. Banks still have closed fists. Small business - of which I am one - is still hurting. 

3) I am not wholly anti-union but I think the unions could have ran business better than they did. 

4) I'm irate that government aided this problem because a bunch of people who don't know their way around an engine have the audacity to think they can intervene and tell companies how to manufacture their products. Give me a break.

5) I'm irate that all of these Johnny-come-latelys have been silent over import/export tariffs, silent over other countries taxing the hell out of our autos. There's a good place to start with this cosmetic outrage, America.

6) I'm livid that people don't get that this, THIS is our industry. What would happen if we were to become a quasi-isolationist nation like pre-WWII? We would be SCREWED. We're willing to cede our top industry and allow other countries to take the top tier. This is more about jobs, more about the economy, it's also about this country's place as an industry leader.

7) If I hear another keyboard pundit shriek "RINO!" at the GOP members who supported the LOAN I'm going to rip my hair out and I'm saying this pointedly at Michelle Malkin. It aggravates me that we have people within this movement whose outrage is motivated by lack of knowledge on this issue. 

The GOP doesn't have an identity and now we have a bunch of people jockeying to solidify their interpretation of conservatism as the official definition and trying to leverage this lack of identity for personal gain. 

So again I say: conservatives got the party they deserved on November 4th. Let's have some balls about this and not shirk the truth.

Dana Loesch
Mamalogues.com ( http://www.mamalogues.com )

Host and executive producer, "The Dana Show" ( http://www.971talk.com/dana/index.aspx )
on Fox News affiliate KFTK 97.1 FM Talk

DETROIT - General Motors
announced today a significant reduction of planned production for the
first quarter of 2009 due to the ongoing and severe drop in industry
sales, which were down 36 percent in November overall and 41 percent
for GM (2007 vs. 2008). The impact of these and recently announced
actions to adjust production with market demand, will result in the
temporary idling of approximately 30 percent of GM's North American
assembly plant volume during the first quarter of 2009 and will remove
approximately 250,000 units from production.

The
speed and severity of the U.S. auto market's decline has been
unprecedented in recent weeks as consumers reel from the collapse of
the financial markets and the resulting lack of credit for vehicle
financing.

 Read teh rest here:

http://media.gm.com/servlet/GatewayServlet?target=... ( http://media.gm.com/servlet/GatewayServlet?target=... )

Jody DeVere
President
www.askpatty.com ( http://www.askpatty.com )
www.carblabber.com ( http://www.carblabber.com )

Just posted on AskPatty.com By Brandy Schaffels
AskPatty Editor, and anxious automotive industry insider

http://askpatty.typepad.com/ask_patty_/2008/12/anx... ( http://askpatty.typepad.com/ask_patty_/2008/12/anx... )

 Jody DeVere
President
www.askpatty.com ( http://www.askpatty.com )
www.carblabber.com ( http://www.carblabber.com )

STATEMENT FROM PRESIDENT-ELECT BARACK OBAMA

"I am disapponted that the Senate could not reach agreement on a short-term plan for the auto industry. I share the frustration of so many about the decades of mismanagement in this industry that has helped deliver the current crisis. Those bad practices cannot be rewarded or continued. But I also know that millions of American jobs rely directly or indirectly on a viable auto industry, and that the beginnings of reform are at hand. The revival of our economy as a whole should not be a partisan issue. So I commend those in Congress as well as the Administration who tried valiantly to forge a compromise. My hope is that the Administration and the Congress will still find a way to give the industry the temporary assistance it needs while demanding the long-term restructuring that is absolutely required."

Politics & News Contributing Editor
Queen of Spain ( http://queenofspainblog.com/ )

There. I've said it. And I'm willing to admit that there is a lot I do not understand about economics and the government's role in supporting our finanical health.

The reading I've done says that the bill failed because it conceded too much to the workers. Aren't the workers already suffering? Should the bail out be at their further expense? And just yesterday on the radio I heard an auto industry specialist blame the failure of the auto industry on the strictness of "job descriptions and union rules and worker safety requirements." Is the industry REALLY blaming the workers for their failure?

Is it really the fault of the worker in shipping and recieving or the worker on the line because she wants a living wage and health care? Not the fault of a bloated, unimaginative management, who failed to release fuel efficient cars onto the US market at a time of skyrocketing fuel costs. For this, the manufacturers blame... the American people. "They wanted SUVs. The market demanded it." Meanwhile, Honda and Toyota released hybrids and continued productionn of their popular, fuel efficient models, including releasing the Fit and the Yaris, models that both get near 40mpg. We got the H2, the new fuel efficient... Hummer. 

Yeah, it's the workers and the American public.

There's something else that I'm having a hard time getting my head around. I actually bought an American car, to my stunned surprise, two years ago. It's a GREAT car, exactly what I wanted. It's a Pontiac Vibe. You know what it says on all the parts when you pop the hood? TOYOTA. The auto industry is global.My Vibe comes from a Toyata plant in California. When we bail out the auto industry, where is the money going to go? Is it going to go to Toyota and Honda? Or is it going to go to retooling US based plants and retraining US workers to build forward thinking cars that can compete with the foreign manufacturers that are eating our lunch?

I'm not anti-socialist - if we want to assist in the development of an
auto industry that is forward thinking for both the workers and the
environment, sets minimum CAFE standards, and invests in onshore
creation of manufacturing jobs, I think that's a GREAT thing. But I
have a lot of trouble swallowing the concept that the Big Three should
be the ones to manage that project.

Finally, I'm worried about precedent. Are we setting up a corporate bread line? Financial traders, the auto makers, Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac... I read that homebuilders were asking for funds. Will we bail out technology, too, when it feels the crunch? Who's next? The newspapers are having a terrible time of it, are they getting a government bailout too? 

And if we can find 700 billion dollars to bail out an industry, why, why, why, can we not find the funding to insure all Americans, diverting some of that buisness expense back into keeping our failing industries afloat?  

Nerd's Eye View ( http://www.nerdseyeview.com )

Like Erin my shock , sadness and anger over the Senate Rebpublicans refusal to support our US Auto Industry overwhelms me this morning...

The $14 billion auto-industry bailout bill died in the Senate late
Thursday after the United Auto Workers refused to accept Republican
demands for swift wage cuts to bring UAW workers' pay in line with
Japanese carmakers.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said he
hoped President George W. Bush would tap the Wall Street bailout fund
for emergency aid to the automakers.

Experts say their best shot is for President-elect Barack Obama to
persuade the outgoing White House to free up emergency loans from the
$700 billion federal bailout, or to have the Federal Reserve make a
loan.

http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5... ( http://www.google.com/hostednews/ap/article/ALeqM5... )

Please send a letter to ASAP to President Bush comments@whitehouse.gov urging him to save the US Economy from another Depression. 

Jody DeVere
President
www.askpatty.com ( http://www.askpatty.com )
www.carblabber.com ( http://www.carblabber.com )

on Counter Spin ( http://www.fair.org/index.php?page=3656 ) a week or so ago. A labor leader explained that the money paid to workers accounts for less than 5% of the cost of a vehicle. He also explained that the so-called higher pay of American union workers was based on numbers that included a lot of items that don't have any effect on workers paychecks. It upsets me that so many legislative decisions based on faulty information.

Virginia DeBolt
BlogHer Technology Contributing Editor ( http://www.blogher.com/blog/virginia-debolt )
Web Teacher ( http://www.webteacher.ws/ )
First 50 Words ( http://first50.wordpress.com/ )