I may have been a little hasty and a little harsh in my criticism of Republican legislators. It seems we do have some Republicans with courage and principle. They are making me proud.
Politico just reported, "Republican leaders across the board have let loose on President Bush’s auto industry bailout in what may be some of the toughest GOP criticism of the Bush presidency." And, a "cast of other angry fiscal conservatives" are criticizing Bush.
According to Politico, John McCain is leading the charge. "It is unacceptable that we would leave the American taxpayer with a tab of tens of billions of dollars while failing to receive any serious concessions from the industry,” McCain is quoted as saying.
Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.) makes the point that it is an illegal use of the TRPA funds to use those funds to bailout the auto industry. “These funds were not authorized by Congress for non-financial companies in distress,” Gregg said, “but were to be used to restore liquidity and stability in the overall financial system of the country and to help prevent fundamental systemic risks in the global marketplace.”
It is probably too late to impeach Bush. There is probably no easy mechanism to stop the President from misappropriating funds. I wish someone would introduce legislation to repeal TRPA or impound the remaining funds. This abuse of power should not be allowed to stand.
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This is what happens when government is allowed to "save" the economy. The minute people got it into their heads that our politicians need to do something to save us, the next steps to throwing tax dollars at the crisis becomes natural. Now we are stuck with more of this.
ReplyDeleteYou do realize the federal government is on the hook for unemployment payments and the pension fund if they go bankrupt, don't you?
ReplyDeleteUAW has made concessions - Banking crisis is to blame
ReplyDeleteRegarding the $14 billion loan proposal for the Big 3 automakers that was passed by the house and stymied by a group of 'agenda seeking' republican senators bent on destroying the UAW, it is unfortunate to see how a large amount of mainstream media chose to aligned itself with these senators and blame the UAW for not agreeing to an arbitrary timetable for wage concessions. It is an outright shame the media failed to mention that the UAW had already made significant concessions. Its 2007 contract created a second- tier wage level with a beginning wage of about $14.00 per hour for new hires while making significant cuts in health care coverage and eliminated future pensions for them.
The media also failed to mention that these key Republican culprits, under the guise of working in the best interest of the country, all represent Southern states that have bent over backward to attract foreign auto factories. For years,these states have been subsidizing foreign automakers with free land, new infrastructure and tax abatements, all with taxpayer money, all for non-union jobs. In their defeated effort, these senators were not trying to rescue the American auto industry which in turn would save millions of taxpaying jobs; but rather as stated above, were simply trying to crush the unions.
Union labor expenses for the Big 3 automakers amount to about 10 percent of the price of a new vehicle and according to data from the 2008 Harbour Report, an annual study of manufacturing efficiency, nine of the 10 most efficient auto assembly plants in North America are union plants. Let's place the blame where it should be; on the current banking/mortgage crisis, not the UAW.
GET THE FACTS!
www.JoeTheAutoworker.com