Posted on 11/15/2008 6:05:44 AM PST by reaganaut1
General Motors Corp., hoping to sway the battle in Washington over an auto-industry bailout, has begun telling federal officials that a bankruptcy filing by the car maker would set off a chain reaction hammering hundreds of suppliers and dealers -- and in turn the company's Detroit rivals.
GM is attempting to set the terms for what looks to be a showdown among the lame-duck U.S. Congress, President Bush and the incoming Obama administration. On Friday, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid signaled he will move forward on Monday with a bill giving the industry access to the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program. That entity, known as TARP, was set up by the government in October to help ailing banks and other financial firms.
The Bush administration and many Senate Republicans oppose giving auto makers access to TARP. Instead, President Bush on Friday urged Congress to speed up the release of $25 billion in already-approved loans to the auto industry. He asked Congress to drop requirements that those loans be used to help the industry retool to meet higher fuel-economy standards, a step many Democrats oppose. The Republicans have enough votes to block a deal in the Senate.
Amid the political horse trading, GM is holding meetings this weekend with U.S. Congressional leaders, the Bush White House and members of the Obama transition team, according to people familiar with the situation. The efforts are an attempt to show policy makers how a GM bankruptcy filing would unleash unintended consequences that could cripple the country's industrial base.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
(1) wiping out the stock (2) cutting the principal and interest of the bonds by 2/3, which reflects where they are currently trading (3) big layoffs, no jobs bank, no restrictive work rules, pay cuts, no retiree health benefits I could support a government loan to a newly viable company.
But I know that if the government opens the door to more "loans", the workers and investors will expect the company to operate as is, with no real changes. So reluctantly, I have to say let them go bust. A bankruptcy judge will do a better job of fixing the company than Bush, Obama, Reid, Pelosi, and my personal hero, Henry Paulson.
They could give ten million Americans coupons for $20,000 each to buy a new car. Someone would get some real good out of the 200 billion.
Contact all your reps in Congress to protest the bailout of the auto industry.
http://www.congress.org/congressorg/directory/congdir.tt
I just don’t understand why the US Government just doesn’t purchase all their “excess production.” ;-)
Btw, a Government loan to ANY ANY ANY private business is BAD BAD BAD.
GM aka the big three are the only ones begging for this bailout.
Kia is building a huge plant currently on Georgia-Alabama border.
More foreign car makers build cars in the south because those employees are grateful for their high paying jobs.
Welfare ( blue states) states have called us hillbillies and such.
Who is laughing now?
And, what really pisses me off, they are sending all these lobbyists to DC to demand more of our money.
How much do you think that costs?
Please, as my Auto Engr contact tells me with the amount of folks that have already taken early separation "packages" with the big three, these are effectively a mute point.
Please also google the following:
New plant works rules (Yes in place the same as Toyota)
Parity of pay with Toyota (Yes $48 hr, for new folks coming in, the fly in the ointment is getting many more people to take "packages").
The "VEBA" which will transfer the legacy cost (long term retiree health benefits to the UAW) in 2010, ergo the cash needed to make it until 2010.
The lack of knowledge about these vehicles of internal change within these organizations by the conservative punditry and talk show host is frightening. They are getting the story wrong, with that said, what better are they now than the "Lame-Streams" ?
It is ridiculous to bail-out a mismanaged company operating under preposterous union contracts when the rest of the country's citizens, strapped themselves, don't make anything close to the wages of these overpaid people.
Bailing out industrial inefficiency is not in the long-term interests of the American taxpayers.
General Motors, Ford and Chrysler have had DECADES to be competitive and make a product that outsells the competition.
Rewarding this failure is a disaster for America regardless of the short-term pain to be endured. It will only prolong the inevitable collapse of poorly run companies making products nobody will buy.
I want my Cadillac Escalade.
Looks like all of mccains staffers have found new jobs. LOL
How much do you think that costs?
Just Damn!!!
“I want my Cadillac Escalade.”
You won’t have to worry about putting gas in it now that Obama is president!
let's talk about, GM's "Mr. Goldwrench."
You go into a GM dealer's service department and the bastards charge you $600 to replace door latches on a van.
The "big three" have been ripping consumers a new one for a very long time with their dealer service departments charging a fortune even for simple repair and replacement of shoddy parts built cheaply to begin with.
Let the "Big Three" fail - Change we can believe in!
[I]”Contact all your reps in Congress to protest the bailout of the auto industry.”[/I]
Done. The current financial crisis isn’t why GM is in trouble; it only exacerbated GM’s problems.
Why is GM going bankrupt? In 1994, I bought a Chevy Lemon. When I demanded, after 5 major repairs in its first year of life, that they take it back, they only wanted to know where I financed it (not with GMAC? - too bad).
I talked to the VP for Customer Service in Detroit. I said, “You promised that the pride and quality was back in American autos, and you didn’t deliver.”
His response, I kid you not, “If you wanted quality, you should have thought about that before you bought a Chevy.”
THAT’S why GM is on the verge of bankruptcy. I’ll NEVER EVER buy another GM product. In MY driveway at this moment: A Toyota and a Hyundai, both bought new, both of which I own, outright.
...the news about the Jobs Bank program should kill off a bail out attempt.
That's right. Obama is going to take care of me. He's going to pay my mortgage, too.
Can you read? Do you understand the impact on the economy? If the GOP does this, they are finished. They will be blamed for what will be most likely a world wide depression. Look at the lost revenue. I know union derangement syndrome blinds most of you to the obvious, but please consider the consequences of wiping out billions of dollars worth of jobs.
Not true-lies-Janesville workers got pink slips folks.
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