Posted on 12/07/2008 12:45:13 PM PST by NormsRevenge
CHICAGO - President-elect Barack Obama announced support Sunday for a short-term government bailout of the nation's carmakers that is tied to industry restructuring. He also accused auto executives of a persistent "head-in-the sand approach" to long-festering problems.
Obama said Congress was doing "the exact right thing" in drafting legislation that "holds the auto industry's feet to the fire" at the same time it tries to prevent its demise.
In an appearance on NBC's "Meet the Press" and later at a news conference, Obama at one point suggested some executives should lose their jobs.
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
You know what is going to happen....they are going to install F.O.B. in there...
From a man who never ran a business or made a budget.
Chrysler CEO Robert Nardelli (L-R) and Ford Motor Company President and CEO Alan Mulally take their seats to testify about a proposed government bailout plan for the US auto industry at a hearing of the House Financial Services Committee on Capitol Hill in Washington, December 5, 2008. (Jonathan Ernst/Reuters)
Friends of Barack.....like his leadership corps the Wall Street Journal reported on.....all black.
OBAMA, THE STOCK MARKET, AND ENERGY
All the more reason to work our hardest to try and influence the GOP Senators, who do retain the filibuster, to develop some manhood and patriotism and stand in the way of it wherever they can.
I don’t care what Obama thinks, but I do care what Freepers think: do you all think the auto industry’s problems are primarily due to the unions pricing the product out of competitiveness or because these corporations have poor leadership? I’m beginning to think they are twin faces of a common reality: I keep running into more and more young managers who only want to work 40 hours a week, enjoy a six week vacation, and who care less and less about the bottom line, provided their salary and benefit demands are met. What think ye all?
Obama goes after the auto exec’s but what about the union bosses that DEMANDED a contract the company couldn’t afford? Not a word on that I guess.
But noooooooo, the treasonous slimebags are running our Nation and planning to put other people in prison?
Unbelievable!!! Just unbelievable!!!!!!!
Yes, if you drive a major corporation into the ground, you should lose your job.
Heck, I don’t see how throwing money at the problem is going to fix it. They must be allowed to fail, so that they will downsize, and come back smaller, stronger and more efficient.
Plus, their workers making obscene amounts of money due to unions doesn’t help, either.
“I think he has to move on,” Dodd said, noting that GM was in the worst shape of Detroit’s automakers. “I think you’ve got to consider new leadership.”
What kind of Bizarro World are we living in where Chris Dodd says people should be fired for incompetence?? Dodd is the single biggest factor for the economic woes in this country and should be in federal prison by now.
Why would the Auto Executives sign a labor contract that they knew they could not afford?
Reminds me of a little computer humor back in the day.
What do you get when you cross an auto executive with a vampire?
autoexec.bat
He has to stop this sort of thing, or he will not make it past the first year.
He has still not shown any proof of payments on the sweetheart loan (gift) from Countrywide.
As opposed to Congress, which applies a persistent "head-in-the @$$ approach" to long-festering problems.
So should most members of the house of “representatives”.
Now, the biggest problem the auto industry faces ~ the arrogance of its automobile sales managers.
We've all met them. Their counterparts on the production side have been running these companies into the ground for the last 5 decades.
No doubt Obama got to see some of their Congressional testimony ~ on a smoke break most likely ~ a very long smoke break in fact. And all at once it inescapably occurred to him, just like it did to virtually every Freeper, all the union guys, the folks with stores, school teachers, housewives, teenagers with drivers licenses, grandparents, uncles, aunts and maybe even a few RINOs, "I've met those guys ~ they tried to sell me a different car than the one I wanted or could afford".
I doubt you need to run a business to recognize who the top guys at the BIG THREE are. You don't need to know much about budgets to get that sinking feeling that these guys are trying to screw you again.
The CEO who thought that that the Pontiac Aztec would sell should be fired.
He should be put in an insane asylum as well.
It's not because you are just an ignorant customer.
The other all too true aphorism is "management gets the union it deserves".
Obama wants to bailout Kenya and other nations.
Barack Obama: Global Poverty Act = World tax = Socialism
http://video.aol.com/video-detail/barack-obama-global-poverty-act-world-tax-socialism/1343004660
We are dealing with "overhead" ~ to wit, retiree medical insurance/care and retiree pensions.
There are 600,000 people involved. Once you've trimmed GM/FORD/CHRYSLER down to fighting trim and offloaded those retiree costs, you and I get to pay the overhead.
You ready for that?
The POS-elect has run just how many industries again?
Can you imagine the outcry if Bush had suggested, say, some Hollywood execs should be fired? Oddly enough, when it comes to someone Obama actually has some influence in terminating- like Charlie Rangel, the great one is suddenly silent.
I think it is largely due to the UAW. My dream result of this is that GM goes bankrupt and comes back without the unions following selling off a division to a private investor. Wouldn’t it be great to see an euntrepreneur take over a few plants and build quality American autos?
Beyond the wage issue, unions make it difficult to get rid of lousy employees. I want to buy a car from a company that kicks a lousy employee out to put in a better one, not a company that protects lousy employees.
While he is probably right... the fact that this comes from someone who (as far as we know) has never been an "Executive" of so much as a LEMONADE STAND makes his opinion worth less than some dude with a "Will Work For Food" sign at an intersection!!!
Well then you tell me how they got in this mess? paying union workers that are layed off maybe? Obviously their labor costs are higher than the Japanese auto manufacturers. Are you saying the union isn't to blame for GM's troubles? HOGWASH!
Otherwise the UAW would shut them down. GM doesn’t stop expenses when the factories stop producing
That's part of the reason that GM has so many brands and car lines...they can't fire people. If they get rid of workers, they have to pay them a huge buyout package or send them to the infamous jobs bank, paying 85% of their salary. So, they figure they keep making the excess line of cars with a modest loss versus getting rid of the workers and taking a larger loss.
I don't deny the auto execs made some lousey choices and are waaaay overpaid but Obama was silent on the union contracts that helped put GM where it is today.
As far as Rangel is concerned Obama would NEVER admit a fellow RAT has done wrong. Birds of a feather stick together.
It cost about $13,000, and could carry 5 adults with all their luggage, plus it had a rooftop capacity of about 200 pounds provided you had the optional rail system.
This model was highly desired for use by sales reps who worked in downtown locations. Hyundai says "it's coming back next year".
The Pontiac Aztec outfitted similarly (and obviously a bigger vehicle) was priced at about $27,000.
For a long while these were the only two passenger type vehicles that could successfully carry a sheet of plywood and still leave room for a driver and passenger. I don't think GM is going to bring this one back.
Advice from someone that has never held a job let alone one with executive responsibility!
I used to carry 12-2X12X16ft. in my 1976 AMC Pacer.
I suggest some leaders in the house and senate lose their jobs as well. They have done just as bad of a job as auto executives have done.
If all the Chevy and Chevy knockoffs GM offers were painted but one color, you would need spaces for 420 vehciles to allow a customer to see them all!
I think the marketing people at GM went insane some time ago ~ just totally flat out mentally ill type insane.
On our honeymoon through Wisconsin we stopped and bought half a dozen directly from a mill. They were used later to deck out the van and do stuff.
“Yes, if you drive a major corporation into the ground, you should lose your job.”
Yes, and then get a job in government ala Reuben.
I have the same attitude toward Obama, his various political bosses like Daley and Soros, along with Dodd, Pelosi, Reid, Kennedy, Kerry, Leahy, Byrd, Murtha...
Dodd: General Motors Executive Should Resign in Exchange for Bailout
FOXNews.com | Sunday, December 07, 2008
Posted on 12/07/2008 1:09:09 PM PST by Abathar
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2144570/posts
On the suggestion of firing the CEO's. I recall Mulally turned Boeing around to profitable and Ford made him an offer and he took it to do the same for Ford. Mulally hasn't been at the helm of Ford long enough to be blamed for anything, good or bad.
I do blame Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Pelosie, Reid and lots of other democrats and the policies they instituted on energy and the regulation of business for the sudden collapse of the economy.
I just hope what's left of the Republican party has the testicular fortitude to stand up for conservative values and protect business. A poor man never hired anybody.
Gee, I sure am glad we can depend upon Husseins vast business and financial experience. I wonder what he thinks about people who went through a hundred million dollars + in something like, oh, the Annenburg thing, with no measurable positive results?
Many reasons - they're held hostage by union bosses who can shut down the entire process with sole source parts from one plant (like they did in Flint with brake linings) and just in time mfg keeping inventories to a bare minimum, partly greed - hard to say no to Joe line worker's request for a lower co-pay when the boss is pulling down $44 million a year, and part wishful thinking that things will always get better and if they can just hold on long enough for retirement, it'll be someone else's problem.
I blame both the auto executives and the UAW for the failure of the industry.
The UAW is to blame for demanding too much.
The auto executives are to blame for:
Giving in the UAW Demands
Electing to make vehicles that people did not want to buy
Designing and building vehicles that are of far lessor quality that cars made by Japanese auto companies
Not modernizing their facilities
Deciding to build large vehicles such as the Suburban and H-3 when it was obvious that the customer wanted more fuel efficient vehicles.
Selling crap like the Pontiac Aztec
Being dumber than the Japanese auto executives who had a much greater insight to the American market than the American auto executives.
No one sighed a contract with a gun to their head.
The UAW is to blame for demanding too much.
The auto executives are to blame for:
Giving in the UAW Demands
Electing to make vehicles that people did not want to buy
Designing and building vehicles that are of far lessor quality that cars made by Japanese auto companies
Not modernizing their facilities
Deciding to build large vehicles such as the Suburban and H-3 when it was obvious that the customer wanted more fuel efficient vehicles.
Selling crap like the Pontiac Aztec
Being dumber than the Japanese auto executives who had a much greater insight to the American market than the American auto executives.
You and I are in complete agreement. The only question is will Congress make it worse? I'd say they probably will.
Yeah, for getting into bed with the unions. But I bet that steaming pantload 0bama didn't mention that part.
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