Top Republican Senators Oppose Automaker Bailout

Associated Press / NYT ^ | November 16, 2008

[reaganaut1]

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Top Republican senators said Sunday they will oppose a Democratic plan to bail out Detroit automakers, calling the U.S. industry a ''dinosaur'' whose ''day of reckoning'' is coming. Their opposition raises serious doubts about whether the plan will pass in this week's postelection session.

Democratic leaders want to use $25 billion of the $700 billion financial industry bailout to help General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC.

Sens. Richard Shelby of Alabama and Jon Kyl of Arizona said it would be a mistake to use any of the Wall Street rescue money to prop up the automakers. They said an auto bailout would only postpone the industry's demise.

''Companies fail every day and others take their place. I think this is a road we should not go down,'' said Shelby, the senior Republican on the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee.

''They're not building the right products,'' he said. ''They've got good workers but I don't believe they've got good management. They don't innovate. They're a dinosaur in a sense.''

Added Kyl, the Senate's second-ranking Republican: ''Just giving them $25 billion doesn't change anything. It just puts off for six months or so the day of reckoning.''

[AmericanVictory]

Good for you, Richard Shelby, who also tried valiantly to stop the mortgage mess that did so much to get us in this fix.

[FreeAmerica2009]

No MORE BAILOUTS to ANYONE. I know if I went into business making buggy whips, I doubt I’ll get a bailout.

[tobyhill]

The Rats are going to have near a super-majority in the Senate in January so they can, at that time, do whatever they want and when it fails they get ALL the blame.

[Glacier Honey]

ping

[dr_who]

Maybe people in Michigan and some of those other states will see what the unions are doing to their economies and back right to work legislation.

[CRBDeuce]

now there you go again xjcsa....putting words in someone’s mouth. So, to answer your question NO I wouldn’t want Senators to come up with a plan...never, not in a million years. However, Senator Inhofe has excellent advisors. If one of those advisors came up with a non-union plan forward for the Big 3 that might work, I’d be interested in hearing about it! In General, I would hope that from here, that Congress would pass a “Sense of Congress” bill that says something like: “It is the sense of Congress that the $350 Billion package passed in October is restricted to the Banking Industry, and the Banking Industry only”. Save a lot of lobbyists, whiners, and other vultures a lot of time and wasted effort....God knows we’ve wasted 2 years of peoples spare time on a useless election!