Posted on 11/20/2008 12:36:53 PM PST by SmithL
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Democratic leaders in Congress sidetracked legislation to bail out the auto industry Thursday and demanded the Big Three develop a plan assuring the money would make them economically viable.
"Until they show us the plan, we cannot show them the money," Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said at a hastily called news conference in the Capitol.
She and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., said Congress would return to work in early December to vote on legislation if General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC produce an acceptable plan.
The decision averted a likely defeat of legislation providing $25 billion loans for the industry. Reid and Pelosi said there was no plan in circulation that could pass both houses of Congress and win President George W. Bush's approval.
While the decision headed off the defeat of one bill, it did not necessarily translate into passage of a different one.
As a result, the fate of hundreds of thousands of auto workers and even of an iconic American industry hang in the balance.
(Excerpt) Read more at sfgate.com ...
A number of Asian news sites report that the largest Chinese auto maker (SAIC) will walk into the situation by the end of December and likely pick up GM...maybe even Chrysler. I think both will be desperate enough to accept the deal....to survive for a couple of years as all parts production is based in China.
As for Ford...I’m expecting a surprise “savior” to come in by mid January and cough up enough cash to save the company (maybe even the Russians).
The true losers in this entire deal? The parts industry in the US will be taken down within just a year or two...and the unions. The problem with this entire mess....is that if the banks had not gotten themselves so screwed up....then the loose credit would still be there and the screwed-up union deal would just continue on. What the democratic leadership did in allowing the banks to fall apart...has simply triggered a domino effect...and it won’t end with the car companies.
Thankfully, congress is forcing these whiny, self-serving auto companies to detail exactly how a $25B bailout would be used to prevent them from being just an endless beggar for more. As long as unions are allowed to rule the roost no amount of money will bail out the Big Three. And the Big Three CEOs would be wise to fly commercial for their next meeting with congress.
They need to be able to take credit for it, in the eyes of the unions. But they need to be able to blame the Republicans, in the eyes of everyone else. What a conundrum.
So where was the “plan” when we forked over $750 BILLION to Henry Paulson to dole out as he sees fit?
Not that I think we should hand over money to the Big Three.
Dodd/Frank Motors... where union solidarity is job one.
Would the unions forcibly migrate into other American businesses in that timeframe?
Failed Speaker and Failed Majority Leader fail, yet again. Zero accomplishments. Year 3.
I hate to say this, but the day they bailout the Big Three(IOW the UAW)is the day I stop buying Big Three cars.
And 57% of Hussein's electorate think they're Republicans.
We're f***ed. BOHICA ...
“The instruments aren’t too much of a mystery.”
OK, maybe I exaggerated.
They are “toxic” and “exotic”
57%....!? come on.....
Me too, not that my husband or I have bought them the last few times anyway. But it will be set in stone then.
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