Posted on 11/13/2008 7:15:44 AM PST by Sub-Driver
Obama weighing idea of "auto czar," aide says 11 mins ago
CHICAGO (Reuters) President-elect Barack Obama is considering naming a point person to lead efforts to help the distressed auto industry return to health, an Obama aide said on Thursday.
General Motors Corp, Ford Motor Co and Chrysler LLC are seeking a federal bailout of up to $50 billion.
Automakers and Democratic congressional leaders have discussed a two-stage process in which government would provide $25 billion in direct loans to meet urgent needs. A second $25 billion would come later and could be applied to a United Auto Workers (UAW) retiree health care trust, freeing up more cash for operations.
An Obama transition official said the president-elect was looking into "identifying someone in charge of the auto issue who would have the authority to bring about reforms that would lead to an economically viable auto industry."
Obama said at a news conference last week that he considered federal help for the industry a high priority for his transition and called the auto companies "the backbone of American manufacturing and a critical part of our attempt to reduce our dependence on foreign oil."
(Excerpt) Read more at news.yahoo.com ...
We're being blackmailed. Let GM etc. go away. Toyota will take it from there...And open more USA plants.
NFW
The US economy is already shy 2 quarts of oil.
More useless programs... great...just great.
Instead of cutting, he is adding.
Now we are screwed.
If he really wants to help the US auto industry, he’ll allow the oil companies to drill locally. Enough of this foreign oil crap ... we have our own, let’s use it while continuing to develop alternative fuels.
If he really wants to help the US auto industry, he’ll allow the oil companies to drill locally. Enough of this foreign oil crap ... we have our own, let’s use it while continuing to develop alternative fuels.
Thank you, Dr Seuss.
All these czars is this Russia?
>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>
Don’t be ridiculous! Czarist Russia had a leader who knew how to get something done!
Think Trabant. The government will produce one car and you will buy it whether you like it or not.
“You can’t keep your heat at 72 degrees or drive wherever you want.”
Huh? Not sure how that double post go there. Apologies.
That is one of the nicer things that people call me!
Well it was meant as a compliment. Nice post.
Take your rice rockets and stuff them!
Thanks!
I know... I keep mine at 74.
You might not be all that far off. I don’t know how many vehicles the federal government buys in a year but I would wager it’s not an insignificant amount. It’s entirely plausible the Obama could mandate that the federal government purchase vehicles only from Ford, Chrysler and GM.
And I would guess that the price would be fixed as well to ensure that a tidy profit was turned by the companies, meaning yet another taxpayer subsidy.
You know what we’re talking about here is in reality the real definition of Fascism. Lots of folks throw the term around to include totalitarian forms of government in general but Fascism really is the operation of privately held corporations by the government.
I never thought I would see anything like this in my life but my guess is there’s going to be a lot of things I wouldn’t have believed could happen before this is all over with.
Kodak stayed on it's old path until they lost the film business...and came into the digital camera business many years TOO LATE.
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