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Romney: No bailout.

By DocJ - Posted on November 19th, 2008
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Actually, Mitt Romney - thought to be pretty pro-bailout back during the primary, is even a little more harsh than that (sorry folks, but it's in the NY Times) ...

Quote:
Let Detroit Go Bankrupt

IF General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye. It won’t go overnight, but its demise will be virtually guaranteed.

Much more below the fold...

My rather well-known (to TMR, at least) regard for Gov. Romney notwithstanding, this piece is a nearly beginning-to-end bit of common sense that is sorely lacking from this discussion. Such common sense is, I think, wonderfully summed by the following sentence...

Quote:
Detroit needs a turnaround, not a check.

Precisely so.

So, what does Mitt think Detroit needs?

Quote:
First, their huge disadvantage in costs relative to foreign brands must be eliminated. That means new labor agreements to align pay and benefits to match those of workers at competitors like BMW, Honda, Nissan and Toyota. Furthermore, retiree benefits must be reduced so that the total burden per auto for domestic makers is not higher than that of foreign producers.

That extra burden is estimated to be more than $2,000 per car.

That last bit is a simply staggering number. Truly. If you think about 10% of the cost of a $20K car going to pay the healthcare and retirement expenses of people who didn't even make that car you an start to appreciate just how deep is Detroit's doo-doo. But what about the geniuses who negotiated these perks?

Quote:
Second, management as is must go. New faces should be recruited from unrelated industries — from companies widely respected for excellence in marketing, innovation, creativity and labor relations.

Again, precisely so - and precisely none of this will happen if Detroit gets the cheap heroin being offered by the Democrats.

Now I'm sure several people will comb through Romney's piece to find the finer points of apostasy from conservative first-principles - he is, after all, W. Mitt Romney. It would be disappointing if such criticisms were not leveled, actually. And Romney doesn't disappoint in providing such ammo (the "Investments must be made for the future" bit is the start - but let's face it, if DC is going to spend our money isn't that a better place to burn it?)

And yet, in the din that is Washington people are going to insist that Detroit is "Too Big To Fail" - and all that. Mitt Romney (and many others, it should be said), doesn't seem to believe that.

So, whom do you believe?

Do you believe Governor Romney?

Or do you believe Nancy Pelosi, Harry Reid and President-elect Unicorn Dust?

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streetwise's picture
Auto execs flew to the bailout hearings in their private jets!
Submitted by streetwise on Wed, 2008-11-19 14:48.

Now that is GREAT PR!

Not as good as the Enron exec jet taking wing to bring the moguls to NY for the bankruptcy filing, but close.

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DocJ's picture
Totally insulated from reality.
Submitted by DocJ on Wed, 2008-11-19 18:54.

I suppose if you have enough zeroes at the end of each paycheck - to the LEFT of the decimal place, that is - then you start to think that everyone has a private jet.

It was pretty painfully obvious that none of these fellows were used to answering questions.

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Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie' until you can find a rock.

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gamecock's picture
A great defense of Romney - what do you think of his
Submitted by gamecock on Wed, 2008-11-19 17:31.

support for a Huckabee-like Manhattan-like energy project?

read it all here

excerpt

“We need to initiate a bold, far-reaching research initiative — an energy revolution — that will be our generation’s equivalent of the Manhattan Project or the mission to the moon. It will be a mission to create new, economical sources of clean energy and clean ways to use the sources we have now. We will license our technology to other nations, and, of course, we will employ it at home. It will be good for our national defense, it will be good for our foreign policy, and it will be good for our economy. Moreover, even as scientists still debate how much human activity impacts the environment, we can all agree that alternative energy sources will be good for the planet. For any and all of these reasons, the time for energy independence has come.” July/August 2007 Foreign Affairs

I favor it

Mike DeVine’s Examiner.com columns “One man with courage makes a majority.” - Andrew Jackson

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DocJ's picture
If the gov't is going to pee-away money...
Submitted by DocJ on Wed, 2008-11-19 18:39.

... I just assume it be on stuff like this.

Hey, the NX-class of star ships ain't gonna get built with private cashola, you know!

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Diplomacy is the art of saying 'Nice doggie' until you can find a rock.

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