Does Obama Support Pelosi/Reid Request For Aid To Auto Industry?

The U.S. auto industry should be allowed to fail. They’ve had 35 years to design more fuel efficient vehicles and now they are crying because no one wants the ones they do build?

Plays right into the Democratic Play book.
The more business and industry they control. The better it works into their plans with out much work and lessens it being obvious.
They have half the citizens under control. They will be working on the rest as they go.
They have the economy where they need it.
Taking over a Government has never been so easy, since they set up all the ground work in Advance, and set up a scapegoat.
The Progression was begun 2 years ago.
So forget the popcorn, buy groceries and what you need, turn your money into gold or silver. This kind of ride never turns out well for the people.

seah: “They have half the citizens under control.” – Yes, we call it democracy.

@seah
I agree. People need to wake up. We are screwed. :)

Wow! I really want to bail out an industry that pays $22/hour for someone to sweep the floor, pays for workers not to work, and hasn’t found their way into a generation’s drive way in well, a generation. This is a bailout for the labor unions and the failed experiment that is organized labor. The years of Detroit Auto Exec in-breeding (a parking lot puddle deep gene pool) coupled with the paralyzing impact of labor unions hardly needs a bail out. They need a clean out. Fire the Auto Executives and provide them with the same parachute the $22/hour janitor gets. Then remove the union leaders and provide them with the same parachute. After the “clean out” then we can discuss the bail out. Personal responsibility is the first step on the road to recovery. To think that this group of “boneheads” even have the nerve to ask for help speaks volumes about their character and willingness to accept responsibillity. Educated idiots…you make me sick!

While I think the labor unions are inflexible, it wasn’t their fault that Detroit was building only gas guzzling cars when gas prices spiked. Toyota has been working on fuel efficient cars for years and had product in the market to meet the demand. Ford, Chrysler and GM had nothing to offer the consumer. That is espcially annoying when GM used to be the market leader in hybrid cars and gave that up with a strategy that focused solely on gas guzzlers. Don’t blame the unions for the failed leadership at the top. The problem we have now is that this country can’t afford to have our entire auto industry wiped out. The unions will have to take a haircut in salaries and the execs will need a complete buzz cut as they have shown a willingness to pay themselves huge bonuses even in bad years.

The problems with the US auto industry are twofold: First, US auto makers have been utterly irresponsible with the money that should have gone toward employee pensions (they signed contracts in good faith and must legally uphold those contracts). Second, US auto makers signed onto labor contracts they couldn’t live up to in the first place. Looking through that lens, the reduction in quality makes sense since the industry must sacrifice investment in itself to pay for pensions. As a solution, US auto makers ought to either be allowed to fail or allowed to merge (and thus renegotiate their labor contracts). Obviously merging is probably the least-bad option. Going for another government dole is the worst option since it discourages essential “creative destruction” – a central tenet of market economies – and encourages an infantile attitude among actors in the economy.

I just listened to that video….WHAT A JOKE ALREADY!
If Obama wants to be President, He had better call Pelosi & Reid in do some serious b!tch slapping! This was exactly the kind of thing I feared about an Obama presidency. It has not been a week, and already Pelosi/Reid are off ontheir own trying to broker deals like this.
He should be telling both of them to SHUT UP, PUT UP & SHOW UP.
You can see its going to the same BS politics as usual in Washington. If Obama had handled this right, Emanuel should have been telling George that at this point, Pelosi & Reid are out of line trying broker deals before the President elect has had a chance to review what they want to propose to the auto industry.
They needed to get i swift kick in the ass, but on test of power #1, Obama has failed to make it clear who is really in charge!

The American auto industry knew there was an energy crisis back before I graduated high school in the 1970s. Like a lot of businesses, though, they put their eggs in one basket: whichever basket was selling. They held on to only what sells, without an eye to what future needs might be. Maximizing profit was the name of the game, which is why the only interior color you can get these days is black! And, they felt it really wasn’t their place to tell people not to buy cars with V8 engines and be more like Europe. Americans are spoiled and used to getting what they want, when they want it, without regard to economic or environmental consequence. Doing the right thing is “inconvenient”. GM pulled station wagons and the electric car because they weren’t pulling the strong sales numbers trucks and SUVs were. So now the government is faced with a problem – reward the ants who ran proactive businesses who budgeted for technological innovations that help reduce dependency on fossil fuel, or bail out the grasshoppers who only lived for today’s sales? You could form a line for all the industries that need help today – why not bail out the failing newspaper industry while we’re at it? What makes auto workers’ jobs more important than anybody elses? We’re ALL in a bind…

Excuse me KP, but I AM educated. And my experience has shown me that GM & Ford build crappy vehicles. Every vehicle I have purchased from an “American” car company has had shoddy workmanship. The trim comes off, handles & knobs break easily, the transmissions die. We had a Honda Accord for 18 years and the only reason we got rid of it, was the body was finally starting to show some rust. We never had ANY problems with it. We currently have a Honda CR-V and Chevy Colorado…. guess which one is constantly in the shop? Not the Honda.

These car manufactures do not need a bailout, neither did the banking.
The bailout is equivilent to a heart bypass when a person is suffering from the flu. The economy is a living organism that will adapt without outside stimulants.
If the companies would have crashed, others would have thrived.
The real issue with the economy was that every was overinflated.

Thank you Pat Napolitano Marietta. Ga., you are correct. The U.S. Automakers were force to spend millions to create the vehicles requested by congress. I live in Massachusetts and many of our State’s department vehicles such as “Mass Highway Dept” run on “CNG”. Those vehicles include everything from small cars up to larger pickups. Ford and Chevrolet already have ten plus years of their cars and pickups sold to my State. I am angry that I don’t have the opportunity to purchase the same cars as they do. Simply because I would have no place to fill my tank after taken delivery. So my local dealership couldn’t sell me one know matter how bad I want to protect our environment. That is a shame. But, we can’t keep blaming our domestic auto companies for something they have had no support from our country.

Thank you Ashley, you are correct. What makes me laugh is how people keep said how GM and Ford are not building fuel efficient car and trucks. GM has the most vehicles getting over 30 MPG. Ford is not far behind. Honda Ridgeline is small truck, but only gets 16-17 miles per gallon. Say what you want, but both full size Ford F150 Pickup and Chevrolet Silverado 1500 Pickup are much larger and still get 21 MPG. Do you know this is the only country in the world that sells itself short when looking at the quality of their Automobiles. Mercedes Benz sold off Chrysler after they realized, no matter how good the quality has become, the media and the idiots in this country that listen to them will make it hard to overcome market conditions. That is a Shame!!

I can’t wait to see and listen to all of you baby boomers starting to collect Social Security and will have a shortage sooner, rather than later. Only you morons belief there is ever a surplus in the Social Security Trust Fund. You need jobs here in the U.S. to pay in each year for the money to be there next year. They Zero that account out every year after they calculate who qualifies to recieve it the following year. God you guy know so little and claim to know so much. LOL, as they say, the person to speaks the loudest/most, most likely knows the least.