Posted on 12/12/2008 7:04:08 AM PST by meandog
Bush changes mind, may save auto giants
Facing the potential bankruptcy of iconic American firms, President Bush on Friday abandoned his longstanding objection to using using the Wall Street bailout fund to help save G.M., Ford and Chrysler.
A frustrated Republican congressional official said: "If only they had said this last week, we could have saved ourselves a full week."
Ten hours after the Senate rejected a separate lifeline for the automakers, White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said in a statement it would be "irresponsible" to let the companies crash. So she said Bush will "consider other options," including the $700 billion Troubled Assets Relief Program that Congress created for the Treasury Department in October.
"Under normal economic conditions we would prefer that markets determine the ultimate fate of private firms," Perino said in a statement. "However, given the current weakened state of the U.S. economy, we will consider other options if necessary – including use of the TARP program — to prevent a collapse of troubled automakers. A precipitous collapse of this industry would have a severe impact on our economy, and it would be irresponsible to further weaken and destabilize our economy at this time."
(Excerpt) Read more at politico.com ...
“A frustrated Republican congressional official said: “If only they had said this last week, we could have saved ourselves a full week.”
More like: “If only they had said this last week, we could have saved ourselves from the public scrutiny of being idiots!”
Lots of companies successfully navigate Ch 11 and keep right on doing business.
It looks like it would be particularly advantageous here because GM would be able to shed some onerous obligations, especially bloated union programs that pay people not to work.
“He has no authority to do this.”
Congress gave him $700 billion to play with. He has the authority.
Better start the process soon.
You stood outside 'Cheney's House'....
..my husband and I went to West Palm to protest the 'chad count'...
THIS is what is gutting us.....WE TRUSTED HIM...and he slid a knife in our back.
Jorge is sounding more like Barry Hussein every day. I guess he wants to be popular, too.
I suggest he change his retirement home to Kennebunkport, ME, where his politics would be more welcome than in TX.
TARP funds apply to the auto business?
Unions overplayed their hand to such an extent that this country is now in its death throes. Businesses countered by 1) buying off senators and ramming NAFTA through so they could exit the country without losing their market and 2) making sure the borders weren’t enforced so that those businesses that had to stay behind because of high distribution costs could have cheap labor. It’s all about wage parity and when auto workers and longshoremen make more than doctors and aerospace engineers, there’s a big problem.
What good will it do? He’s gone in a month anyway.
He doesn’t give a “shiite” about us.
I will NEVER buy a GM or Chrysler vehicle again in my life and I will bash them every chance I get.
It's also worth noting that at least one or two of the Big Three are actually doing well in their foreign markets. The U.S. auto industry is not the problem here . . . the archaic business model of the Big Three U.S. operations is the problem.
It amazes me that the GOP lets itself be the fall guy in this situation. We are the MINORITY party. The Democrats CONTROL the Senate. They have the ability to pass this thing to keep the UAW fat and the people poor. They didn’t vote for this and the MINORITY GOP takes the heat!
How naive?!?!
It makes sense, its logical, it would work?
Don't mean to direct any sarcasm to you.
New Hires will receive pay at a rate of $14.00 per hour starting in 2010. Current workers will continue to receive the higher pay scale. This is why the automakers have been buying out high seniority workers to get them to voluntarily quit. Some of the receive as much as $70,000 to quit.
What GM is hoping for and the UAW is hoping for is bailout money to get them to 2010 and to continue to buy out UAW seniority workers.
Note to 43: Don't do it, sir. Right now the UAW's a bigger threat to this nation than the Islamists.
Are there anymore Bushbots out there?
Congress authorized the $700 billion TARP, the entire chunk to be administered by a guy or two. It was insanity from the get-go.
Ditto. That dude drives me crazy, I'm not sure if he could tell the truth if it would serve him better.
While I'm burning a slot I did run into an intersting bit of info at the UAW site (as of 2002) here.
How in the heck can an auto company afford to pay 30 and out? You go to work after high school and retire at 50? And this: "Nearly half of the 302,500 UAW members at the Big Three, Delphi and Visteon will have the necessary combination of age and years of service to retire within the next five years." and "At the end of 2002, General Motors, the company with the largest workforce and therefore the greatest pension obligation, had $39 billion in pension assets."
Man, the auto makers had better go BK like yesterday.
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