According to the latest CNN/Opinion Research Corp poll, somewhere in the area of 70% of the American people believe a bailout for the troubled Big Three automakers would be unfair to the American taxpayers, while 61% flatly oppose such action.
A majority of the 1100 persons sampled believe that it would not help the ailing economy.
Let me be perfectly clear here: The $34 billion for the Big Three is a done deal. It will take place, regardless of the opinions of the American people. Congress has everything to gain, and nothing to lose by giving the money to the car companies in the hope that it will do some good.
The sham hearings on Capital Hill last week provided Congress with all the cover that lawmakers need to shield themselves from the wrath of the American voter. Posturing and cheap theatrics -- asking the CEOs of the automakers if they had arrived by private jet, for instance -- endeared the cowards in Congress to all the corporate haters that make up the leftist base.
While in the corporate world "time is money," Congress can afford to take commuter trains to work, so inconsequential is their time. Ask Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, who demanded the government provide her a airliner on par with Airforce One, for her thoughts on time wasted in line at airport security.
To repeat: Congress will come through with the cash for the automakers, and it will probably save them from being forced into bankruptcy. I will withhold comment on whether bankruptcy would or would not be the better option.
The United Auto Workers have made significant concessions in their last two contracts with the automakers, and as a result of this economic emergency, are prepared to swallow much more. An idiotic dinosaur from any age, The Jobs Bank, is deader than the aforementioned T-Rex. Union members are hardcore Democratic base and so anything that might possibly save them their jobs, especially after embarrassing the CEOs by making them grovel before Congress not once, but twice.
Just as the September $700 billion bailout for Wall Street necessitated a redo -- first a bipartisan smackdown to placate the public, followed by $184 billion in pork barrel bribery -- the auto bridge-loan was first rejected. It will now be safe to print up a few billion more small unmarked bills, and to leave them in a brown paper bag on the front steps of Solidarity House in Detroit.
And, of course, if all else fails, and so does the bailout/loan/bridge-loan, the Democratic Congress can always blame the whole darn thing on George W Bush. That whipping boy should be good for at least 2 million jobs and the next two years -- so lets throw money at the problem -- HEY! It has worked for public education and the War on Poverty, why not the economy?
huge debts, not counting the pensions. Any info? And, under federal law, pensions are guaranteed up to $50K/year in case of default. Are you aware of any strategy to try and default on the pensions leaving The Forgotten Man (We the People) with the tab and the Big Three free to carry on with the loan?
Mike DeVine’s Examiner.com columns
“One man with courage makes a majority.” - Andrew Jackson