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Automaker Assistance Disagreements Blur Line Between Red and Blue
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Enlarge PhotoFree-market economists cry foul at huge bailouts and public assistance for ailing companies like GM, Ford, and Chrysler. And yet the very much Republican Bush Administration strongly supports assistance, depicting the Democrats' lack of movement to help the Big Three as "mindless opposition."
Adding to the confusion, the Dems initially supported the automaker bailout, but are now growing reticent and adding terms, conditions, and stipulations to any assistance. So who's blue and who's red in this latest go-round?
Staunch free-market Republicans decry socialist-seeming, Big Government intervention, believing that companies should succeed or fail based on their own merits and decisions. After all, isn't laissez-faire economic doctrine a cornerstone of conservatism? And then the Bush Administration, who've alienated many in their own party over the last eight years, blast the Democrats for refusing to quickly yield billions to the automakers. Huh?
"It is appalling that Congress decided to leave town without addressing a problem that they themselves said needed to be addressed," said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino, according to Automotive News. She went on to bemoan the "mindless opposition to anything that the president or Republicans would support." Does she mean Bush Republicans or Republicans in general?
What's your take on all of this financial wrangling and dischord, and what do your political ideologies lead you to believe would be best for the automakers, the autoworkers, and the crumbling American economy?--Colin Mathews
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Make sure you check out our partner sites dedicated to focused news, reviews and more for Ford, Chevrolet, Toyota, Honda, and the Toyota Prius.
Enlarge PhotoFree-market economists cry foul at huge bailouts and public assistance for ailing companies like GM, Ford, and Chrysler. And yet the very much Republican Bush Administration strongly supports assistance, depicting the Democrats' lack of movement to help the Big Three as "mindless opposition."
Adding to the confusion, the Dems initially supported the automaker bailout, but are now growing reticent and adding terms, conditions, and stipulations to any assistance. So who's blue and who's red in this latest go-round?
Staunch free-market Republicans decry socialist-seeming, Big Government intervention, believing that companies should succeed or fail based on their own merits and decisions. After all, isn't laissez-faire economic doctrine a cornerstone of conservatism? And then the Bush Administration, who've alienated many in their own party over the last eight years, blast the Democrats for refusing to quickly yield billions to the automakers. Huh?
"It is appalling that Congress decided to leave town without addressing a problem that they themselves said needed to be addressed," said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino, according to Automotive News. She went on to bemoan the "mindless opposition to anything that the president or Republicans would support." Does she mean Bush Republicans or Republicans in general?
What's your take on all of this financial wrangling and dischord, and what do your political ideologies lead you to believe would be best for the automakers, the autoworkers, and the crumbling American economy?--Colin Mathews
---
Make sure you check out our partner sites dedicated to focused news, reviews and more for Ford, Chevrolet, Toyota, Honda, and the Toyota Prius.
Responses (12 total)
By Ed | Posted: Nov 24th 2008, 07:56:53 PM
Bill: WHO THE HELL is JL to have STARTED the PERSONAL attacks against me, complete with clueless namecalling? and called me a "POS"? (SIC!)?
As for the execrable Focus, thanks for the correction, (I assume you are correct), but wherever it is made, it is still a FRAUD, a FIRST GEN Focus and NOT the far better 2nd gen FORD FOCUS that the EUROS can buy for more than a year now!!!!!
(It still sold a bnundle when gas was at $4.15 and all secretaries were scared of the fuel cost, because of its good MPG and low price. But now with $1.50 gas, I wonder what, if anything, it will sell in 2009)
By bill | Posted: Nov 24th 2008, 06:01:07 PM
Hey, Ed. Who are you to call JL a clown? You don't even have the "facts straight" in your own post. The Focus has not been built in Mexico since the Fusion came out, but rather is built in Wayne, MI. Sorry, but I just needed to SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT!
By Ed | Posted: Nov 24th 2008, 03:31:15 PM
This utter CLOWN JL, probably a high-ranking UAW STOOGE, who has been losing HOME GAMES for 35 years IN A ROW to the imports and blaming everybody ELSE but themselves and their Arrogant, Idiotic CEOs for it, is resorting to personal attacks and calling me names.
LISTEN, you worthless clown!
BOTH DEMOCRATS AND REPUBLICANS have finally UNDESTOOD that, UNLESS the Detroit 3 (or 2.1) go BANKRUPT, REORGANIZE, FIRE their management and RENEGOTIATE the ONEROUS UAW contract that costs THEM (not the take-home pay!) $73 an HOUR, vs $48 for Honda and Toyota, THEY HAVE NO CHANCE, and the hard-working taxpayer $ will GO DOWN THE DRAIN with NO EFFECT.
People vote with their WALLETS. They KNOW what POS the Big 3 crap is, and they PRICE IT ACCORDINGLY. That would explain to your pea-sized brain why a CIVIC costs $3k MORE than a same-sized domestic, BUT if somebody, unlike YOU, is Arithmetically Literate, he or she can PROVE that, Actually, the TOTAL COST OF OWNERSHIP is far CHEAPER with the Honda, and in ADDITION you have a far superior Driving Experience AND Monumental Reliability ans STELLAR MPG.
Only a total USDA Choice, auto-illiterate MORON would buy a stupid COBALT or Dodge CALIBER or a mexico-made FORD Focus, which is the OLD bAD focus and NOT the much improved 2nd gen the EUROS have been able to buy for over a year now, than an OHIO-Made CIVIC.
That's why they do not only TOP, BY FAR, all the Consumer Reports 100,000s of data owners supply, BUT ALSO they top the comparison tests of ENTHUSIAST MAGS like Car and Driver, ALL THE TIME.
I am not hoping that ANY of this will register in your empty head, but I post it anyway to SET THE RECORD STRAIGHT/
By JL | Posted: Nov 24th 2008, 02:13:02 PM
Ed you are a POS. Any real car enthusiast would not make such a broad and idiotic statement as we will STILL NOT BUY THEIR EXECRABLE POS Cars and Trucks. The fact remains that one of the big reasons why the big 3 are in the position they are in is because of attitudes like this that are hardly backed by facts. I dare you to look at the front page of Consumer Reports car edition and see what you read. Look at JD Power reports about reliability. Wards top ten best engines. See which car company has the most cars with 5 star crash ratings. You will find positive findings about the big 3 albeit some negative as well, the big 3 are making some pretty good/great cars that are worth a look. Also here is a tip stop abusing the CAPS button...you seem so angry all the time!
By David Brown | Posted: Nov 24th 2008, 12:55:30 PM
Willy is intoxicated. He needs a breathalyzer on his keyboard so it won't work when he's been drinking.
By colin | Posted: Nov 24th 2008, 04:05:40 AM
willy j - wow, man, at first blush I am just plain confused by your rambling diatribe. Your command of the english language (or keyboard skills?) is a bit troubling, and as such I really can't decipher just what it is you're driving at. Bourne...breeders...Russia...Germany...global village...2 to 4 year olds...Dude, frankly, i'm completely lost. What exactly are you trying to say? And then you throw in some anachronistic, distasteful racial epithets (at least that's what I think they are) - "negra's...negro Americans..." that seem plucked right from the pre-civil-rights 1940s. You are aware, I hope, that in this day and age we typically call such citizens black Americans, right? And that the term "negro" was abandoned decades ago as one quite ill-fitting where human beings are concerned? And I am most perplexed by your characterization of Barack Obama as the "Angel of Death." Wow, that's quite a claim. Could you please clarify and give a few reasons for your conclusion? I'm sure a few others here would like to know where you are coming from, if indeed even from this planet at all. Then again, given the lack of comments to your post, perhaps people just shrugged, laughed, and moved on to the business of talking about cars, the car industry, and just how our government is going to handle the sinking ship known as the Big Three.
By willy j | Posted: Nov 23rd 2008, 03:18:06 AM
The real proving GROUNDS"" ... For president elect Mr. OBAMA....
Savior of Detroit, will the american Bourne African ["'ANGEL FROM DEATH""].
be able to accomplish and save all!!! ... the mix breeders... life's???????????....
Not with the White African's Bourne {negra's} paying up!!!.........
on all of the insurance policy. Of the ones that they are trying...
to get to fly without wing!!!!!.... Recall this use to happen in the construction trades
{NYC} COLD WAR you Knower.{ than it was negro American organized crime throwing negra's off the Beams...
That is when .. RUSSIA!!!... said they where making Germany: """Prisoner's pay {W.W.II} , Only problem was,
what the russian calls soldier,.... Germany would have had to place them in uniform
at the ripe young age of TWO [2] to FOUR [4] Years OLD's???...
Ya think something is about and very FOUL.. around and about ???... >>
WOW the more thing CHANGE!!! the more they stay the same.
My money is OBAMA ..., is an ""' ANGEL FROM DEATH"'.
HE just don't know it yet.
and his staff is in all probability trying to figure how to do the WRITE UP.
and sell it to the Global village idiots???.
By Jack | Posted: Nov 23rd 2008, 02:50:59 AM
Marty is, no doubt, deciding which inaugural festivities to attend. :-)
By Ed | Posted: Nov 22nd 2008, 02:55:03 PM
Your title is confusing.
The truth is that BOTH Blue and Red have finally wised up and realized what a worthless bunch of clowns the Detroit 3 CEOS, dragged to DC by the even bigger clown UAW Boss Middlefinger, like 3 pathetic circus bears, to beg for billions while riding their private jets to town.
Both Red and Blue realized that, without bankruptcy and a RADICAL REORGANIZATION, that will INCLUDE UAW costs per hour HALF the current $73 or $78 total, the Detroit 3 will go into COMA and continue COMATOSE REGARDLESS how many times we the long suffering TAXPAYERS of this nation give them injections of $25 and $50 billion each!
(but we will STILL NOT BUY THEIR EXECRABLE POS Cars and Trucks!)
By Jack | Posted: Nov 22nd 2008, 12:00:10 PM
I read that GM is already 48 Billion in debt. How are they going to pay that off , plus these new loans from Washington and still be a viable company ? Aside from health care issues, they do need to restructure. Way too many divisions, models and the oversized dealer network, those are the real problems that do need to be addressed. Everybody needs to be “bought out” to downsize which is very expensive. That's why this prepackaged bankruptcy is being talked about because with the plunge in auto sales, they don't have the time anymore to ride this thing out to a soft landing. I am also not convinced that they can build smaller cars profitably in the United States even with the new lower pay scale being implemented for new hires. That needs to be layed out to Congress as well.
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