Big 3 Back in D.C.

[Gaz]

For those of you who aren't following this...This time the Dems were 'heartened' by the gesture of the big 3 executives 'driving' to Washington rather than flying. WTF??? So all you have to do is go back home and then drive back to beg for money two weeks later and all of a sudden things are all better? Better yet, how many of you guys really think that the CEO's of any of the big 3 will actually work for $1 / year. I'm not sure if I'm just extremely irratable today or if this really pisses me off as much as it does.

I had a couple of thoughts as I was reading through this fluffy socialist bull****. First, I'm no rocket surgeon but I would be inclined to think that you need to renegotiate your contract with UAW when the UAW president tells congress that "we could lose GM by the end of this month" if they don't receive bailout money." That's so nice for UAW's president to divulge GM's financial position to Congress rather than let GM do it themselves. Second, UAW says this time that they will make major concessions on top of the 'enormous sacrifices' that they have already made. Here are their concessions they outlined. Concessions #1: SUSPEND the jobs bank program that pays workers full wages AFTER they have been laid off. Suspend is the operative word here folks. Concession #2: Delay the multibillion-dollar payments to a new retiree health care fund that the automakers were scheduled to start making next year. Delay is the operative word here. Why in the HELL didn't Congress ask them how long these benefits woud be suspended and delayed. Until the $25B...er I mean $34B in government bailout runs out. Finally, GM execs said that they could repay any governement loans by 2012. Who in their right mind actually believes this absolutely asinine story??? Does he actually think that the American public (voters and law makers) believe that they can turn around their business and become profitable to the point to repay $10+B in just 36 months?

I am absolutely disgusted with this whole situation. I hope that the rest of you really look into this, think about the situation, and make an educated decision on this situation. Hopefully the rest of you send your congressman a letter and let them know that they might as well just burn $34B in a barrel instead of giving these retards the money. For Christs sake, invest the $34B in penny stocks...there's probably a better chance that the penny stocks will pay off more than the bailout will.

 

[ArcticBoy]

It will be interesting. This is one of Obama's BIG payback deals. The labor unions sunk a ton of money getting Obama elected.

 

[skidoorulz]

I would not have a problem with this if it was a loan and not a handout. I remeber back in the 70's when Chrysler was in trouble and borrowed money from the Govt. Iacoca did everything he said he would do and saved the company and paid the loan back 100% and early. There were all kinds of concessions that were made for this to happen. 1 was to kill all the big block motors. Another was to sell the crewcab patent to Ford and Chevrolet and quit building it themselves. If anyone remembers this killed their pickup market at the time with only a 318 or a 360 to chose from for a powerplant in their trucks. It also killed the market for sales to law enforcement departments with no big block motors. If I remember right Ford and GM were instumental in making the list of things Chrsler would have to do to get the loans needed to stay in business. As you can imagine this really hamstrung Chrsler but Lee pulled it off. I say loan the big 3 the money needed to stay in business with stringent guidelines to follow for repayment. If any of the 3 fail to live up to the rules throw the head guys in prison. Also the unions need to make huge concessions to help these companies out. Why the heck should someone cost a company on average $68.00 per hour in wages and benefits just to put on tailights on a car. That is unskilled labor and the pay and benefits should be in line with the skill needed. Kind of like flipping burgers at McD's for $68.00 per hour. And people wonder why these companies are moving their production out of this country. I beleive the non union Toyota and Honda plants in the U.S. average cost per hour is around $35.oo in pay and benefits. Now one more thing is that the big 3 were building vehicles that the American public wanted to buy, the only problem was that as the price of gas kept skyrocketing they kept building these big ol vehicles but we quit buying them and the big 3 did not react fast enough, and in my opinion still hasn't, and started building smaller more fuel efficiant vehicles. JMO ( sorry about the spelling, I suck at that.)

 

[swampwater]

GAZ is right on with the word "operative", give them the money and it will only delay the inevitable, the only answer is bankruptcy that way the big 3 can shed the issues that created the problem to begin with, union contracts that cost the companies $71.00 per hour per employee and the high payments to retired workers. Than get the government out of the business of telling the companies what cars to make.Swampy

I would not have a problem with this if it was a loan and not a handout. I remeber back in the 70's when Chrysler was in trouble and borrowed money from the Govt. Iacoca did everything he said he would do and saved the company and paid the loan back 100% and early. There were all kinds of concessions that were made for this to happen. 1 was to kill all the big block motors. Another was to sell the crewcab patent to Ford and Chevrolet and quit building it themselves. If anyone remembers this killed their pickup market at the time with only a 318 or a 360 to chose from for a powerplant in their trucks. It also killed the market for sales to law enforcement departments with no big block motors. If I remember right Ford and GM were instumental in making the list of things Chrsler would have to do to get the loans needed to stay in business. As you can imagine this really hamstrung Chrsler but Lee pulled it off. I say loan the big 3 the money needed to stay in business with stringent guidelines to follow for repayment. If any of the 3 fail to live up to the rules throw the head guys in prison. Also the unions need to make huge concessions to help these companies out. Why the heck should someone cost a company on average $68.00 per hour in wages and benefits just to put on tailights on a car. That is unskilled labor and the pay and benefits should be in line with the skill needed. Kind of like flipping burgers at McD's for $68.00 per hour. And people wonder why these companies are moving their production out of this country. I beleive the non union Toyota and Honda plants in the U.S. average cost per hour is around $35.oo in pay and benefits. Now one more thing is that the big 3 were building vehicles that the American public wanted to buy, the only problem was that as the price of gas kept skyrocketing they kept building these big ol vehicles but we quit buying them and the big 3 did not react fast enough, and in my opinion still hasn't, and started building smaller more fuel efficiant vehicles. JMO ( sorry about the spelling, I suck at that.)