Today the President of the United States agreed to give the auto companies 17.4 billion in loan guarantees from the TARP bailout act of 2008. This is going to immediate go to help G M and Chrysler specifically to continue operating through February at least.
And according to some of my favorite conservative pundits and brethren the world might cease to spin on it's axis.
Now don't get me wrong, in a perfect world the government be it local,state or federal levels should have as little meddling to do in business and social affairs of our lives as possible. We of course know that the world is far from perfect.
There are a couple of things to consider in my ohhhhhhh so humble opinion,
1. This has been done before, the bailout errrrrr loan guarantee was offered to Chrysler back in 1979. Who can forget the riveting site of Lee Iacocca getting on his knees to kiss Jimmahhhhh Carters shoes. And Chrysler paid it back!!!! Truly a novelty considering all the money the government gives out every year and get ZERO back in return.
2. The stipulations that were offered by Sen Corker were a fair and reasonable offer to get the guarantees, but most of these things were all ready negotiated and to take affect in 2010 with the new UAW contract. It was not unreasonable for him to want to speed that up. Of course politics had to rear it's head by Republicans and Democrats who wanted a time guarantee from the UAW and the companies on when they would be profitable. Nice try, these Senators had no intention of ever wanting to vote for this and put something in that they knew could not be answered. Try asking your Senator or Rep when the United States will be running a surplus and not a deficit and watch that bambi in the headlight look come over their face!!!!
Now to be fair, most of these commentators that I read were also against the TARP originally on principle. That we could pass a 700 billion dollar package in 10 days and have been screwing with this for over a month for 17 billion tells me the fix has been in on this for a while. This is Republican payback to the UAW for their unrelenting support for the dems and and other unions and a chance to rake their asses over the coals. And it a lot of ways both the CEO's of these companies and union management deserve the scourging. But the changes to the UAW and companies were put in place to be implemented gradually and than the credit crap sandwich happened which accelerated the need to move much faster.
That happens in a free market and with these loan guarantees I believe the Big 3 will be able to get through this time successfully. I know at least from my end I feel a helluva lot better about the taxpayer seeing their money back from the auto companies than I do from any of the other Paulson buddies list who received any dough!!!!
One last thing, I totally get why some people are just so aghast over this, I really do. The President has taken some heavy flack for this maneuver. But where were my conservative co-horts when Bush was running the country's debt up in 2002 to 2006 along with a republican congress? We have been spending money at a clip that is truly remarkable, and nooooooo it's not because of the wars either!!! Social spending in this country has run rampant and it was on GWB watch but I hardly heard a peep when I would bring this up. In fact a couple of times I was called a closet liberal.
The indignity of it all !!!!!!
Now let's all go out and have a very Merry Christmas!!!!!!!!!
