Shelby warns of filibuster of auto bailout

Politico ^ | 12/7/08 1:19 PM EST | JOHN BRESNAHAN

[Ernest_at_the_Beach]

With job losses mounting and Detroit’s Big Three automakers facing a battle on Capitol Hill over emergency federal aid, President-elect Barack Obama on Sunday predicted more hard times for the U.S. economy before it starts to turn around, and Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.) threatened a potential filibuster of any attempt to bail out the automakers.

”This is a big problem. It’s gonna get worse,” Obama warned on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

“Things are going to get worse before they get better,” he added.

Obama’s comments came on a busy Sunday morning that saw Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice making stops on three talk shows to talk about the fallout from the Mumbai terrorist attacks, and lawmakers clashed over whether a $15 billion “bridge loan” to American automakers should be approved.

Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), a staunch ally of the U.S. carmakers, and Shelby, who has emerged as the leading opponent of any aid package for the Big Three, sparred over the whether the American government should rescue U.S. automakers during an appearance on “Fox News Sunday.”

Levin said he was “confident” that Congress would consider a bailout bill for the auto industry, but stopped short of predicting whether it would pass. Democratic leaders in the House and Senate are considering a $15 billion “bridge loan” to help out the automakers.

"I think they're very close to a deal, I think there will be a deal and that will happen in 24 hours," Levin told host Chris Wallace. “Obviously, that's a much more complicated question of whether the votes are there. What I'm confident of is that a bill will be introduced."

[blam]

Boy, my senators have been right on everything, Sessions on immigration and now Shelby on bailouts:

"“This is a down payment on many billions to come," Shelby warned. "This is not something that happened overnight. This is 30 years in the making. These companies basically have failed or are failing. They probably need, according to some people, about 60 percent of the management to go, and about 40 percent downsize of the workers."

[truthguy]

But Shelby, called it a "bridge loan to nowhere,”

I hope Shelby has to eat his words on this one. It's vital to the health of the country that we have a strong auto industry. The Auto Industry has worked very hard over the past 4-5 to turn things around. They were within site of their goal when hit with the double whammy of a spike in oil/gas prices which crushed their sales and then the financial crisis came right behind this. Very few people are buying cars NOW but eventually the customers will come back. GM and Ford have some really exciting cars out there now and more on the way. If they can make it through the next 18 months they will recover.

That said the UAW must reduce their compensation to competitive levels. There must be something done about the legacy costs. These are burdens that the foreign car manufacturers here to not have.

This Shelby thinks that Alabama is a player in the Auto Industry because there are a couple of foreign Auto Manufacturers there doing low-tech final assembly. Shelby thinks that this is Manufacturing. He's as dumb as a box of rocks on this issue.

[Sir Francis Dashwood]

...but nobody asked the ultimate question of why I (and YOU) should pay for someone else’s poor business decisions.

The ultimate question is: Who is going to buy the damned cars?

Not me.

Detroit only makes one car I want... a Corvette.

[MrPiper]

It's vital to the health of the country that we have a strong auto industry

OK, please send me a check out of your bank account because my job, which pays me more than you make, is vital to your health.(I spent more than I make, sorry) Please add as many zeros to the sum as you can./s

What part of socialism is bad, don't you understand?

[Sir Francis Dashwood]

Who is going to buy the damned cars?

I am perfectly happy with my 20 year old BMWs.

If the "Big 3" can find money for their homosexual benefits and pervert social advocacy, why should I have to subsidize them?

The planned obsolescence on the parts for older cars and the unnecessary technical gadgets making service outrageously expensive on newer models is something they incorporated into the design of their product line.

The throw away product line as a business model is coming back to haunt them.

And making things more complicated so the average buyer cannot service the vehicle themselves doesn't help that. Give me another '69 Chevy pick-up I can rebuild in one day or keep your plastic junk...

[roamer_1]

Give me another '69 Chevy pick-up I can rebuild in one day or keep your plastic junk...

heh, heh... Mine's a '78 Chevy, almost fully restored. Wouldn't trade it for one of those new POSs even if you gave it to me. Been there, done that, didn't like the wrecker charges.

[truthguy]

What part of socialism is bad, don't you understand?

I understand socialism very well thank you very much. What I cannot understand if the wish of so many for the death of an industry that has had an enormous impact on our country.

[realdifferent1]

I know how you feel; my bozos are 'the distinguished motorist from MA' and 'the ketchup king'.

Might as well write myself a letter.

[Sir Francis Dashwood]

Mine's a '78 Chevy, almost fully restored. Wouldn't trade it for one of those new POSs even if you gave it to me. Been there, done that, didn't like the wrecker charges.

You get the picture perfectly clear.

I reverted back to buying older, more reliable cars that are user friendly in maintenance and repair. Getting gouged by the towing and repair scam is ridiculous.

I don't need seats wired into the central computer that massage my testicles. It is not the user friendly feature I'm looking for IN A CAR.

[Spktyr]

Yes, it has had an enormous impact. Just THINK of all those hours of productivity lost because your Big Three car wouldn’t start one cold morning - all because Earl on the production line in Chicago couldn’t be bothered to install the starter properly and now it’s chewed up your flywheel.

[Spktyr]

GM makes some great drivetrains, it’s just too bad that the cars they’re bolted into are crap. :P

[Sir Francis Dashwood]

What I cannot understand if the wish of so many for the death of an industry that has had an enormous impact on our country.

PRODUCT LINE.

PRODUCT LINE.

PRODUCT LINE.

They are killing themselves.

[Spktyr]

Stuff like this doesn't help, either. US made caliper from a Ford Excursion:

How does a manufacturer screw up a brake caliper piston that bad????

[Sir Francis Dashwood]

GM makes some great drivetrains, it’s just too bad that the cars they’re bolted into are crap.

They should scrap everything but the Corvette and make various bodies that just bolt on over the top.

[Sir Francis Dashwood]

How does a manufacturer screw up a brake caliper piston that bad????

UAW standard.

[Spktyr]

It was a rhetorical question, I already knew the answer. :P

[roamer_1]

I reverted back to buying older, more reliable cars that are user friendly in maintenance and repair. Getting gouged by the towing and repair scam is ridiculous.

I got a deal on an 01 (pretty new at the time) which promptly broke down a zillion miles back up in the woods. There was nothing I could do with it- "check engine" was on and would not let the motor start. It took me 2 days to hike out, another day for a buddy and me to go get the thing (he only charged me 1/2 day for the wrecker), and then I got whacked $675 to replace a $12 crank sensor (or some such).

Considering I completely rebuilt the 350 that's in my current truck for a bit more than $450, and I guarantee it would drag that 01 around the yard without even breathing hard, and get better mileage doing it, you can understand where my butt got a little sore. :D

There's no way I will go back to something I can't fix right here out of my garage.

[tobyhill]

Good! Now the rest of the GOP needs to get a spine now and block this damn thing for as long as they can. Enough with the bailouts.

[Dahoser]

One of the arguments we hear is how the auto industry is more than Detroit, it's dealers around the country and a host of other businesses that have to stay in business, and so if you're against the bailout, you're doing away with these businesses and throwing all these people out of work. The cold, heartless bastard argument.

The bigger issue, and you see it with globaloney warming among other things, is that the libs are seeking to remove dynamism out of life by telling us we have to preserve the conditions that exist at a particular point in time whether they be climate conditions or the state of an industry including the number of businesses and employees. Every policy they have is designed to manage a steady state which is contrary to nature and the only way they can do that is by strict control. Bailing out the auto industry comes with strings not because they want to hold them accountable, but because the libs want to maintain the snapshot they have of it. So how ever many businesses and employees exist at the time of their snapshot, that's how many businesses and employees they will seek to maintain no matter what it takes. Central planners, who cannot control the teenagers in their own houses and don't learn a thing from their failures there, somehow think they can control entire industries and ultimately the economy. They cannot, of course, but they'll ruin the economy trying and far too many here in this country are now willing to allow it.

[roamer_1]

GM makes some great drivetrains, it’s just too bad that the cars they’re bolted into are crap. :P

I just found a 69 El Camino... That's gonna be my parts gitter.

Body is pretty good... done to block-coat, interior is all there, needs to be put together, 12bolt posi 3:73, m-22 rock crusher, poor skins on centerline mags, chrome is all there no motor... $2700 bucks