Tuesday, March 31, 2009

General Disarray


In response to an inviable viability plan, Barack Obama fired General Motors' CEO Rick Wagoner. That's General Motors, not General Mortars.



National Lampoon's Loaded Weapon 1... go rent it.

Anyway, the shitty CEO definitely had what was coming to him. And it looks like GM will have to file for bankruptcy, eventually being divided into "Good" and "Bad" parts. The Good would be brands like Chevy and Cadillac. The Bad would be Saturn, Buick, Pontiac, and the other unsuccessful parts of the once massive corporation.

So there's the Good, and the Bad (You know what's coming). So what's the Ugly?

The Ugly is the way liberals have molested this economic crisis as well as their stranglehold on Washington into an opportunity to railroad their various agendaa through the Congress. Chrysler, for instance, is also in trouble and desperately needs a partner. Italian firm Fiat has expressed interest. But at the same time, Barack's liberal assassins in the Congress are concocting legislation to impose mileage minimums on cars made in the US. Fiat doesn't like the sound of that, and I can't blame them.

At a time when car companies are so fucked up that they need taxpayer support, the government wants to restrict their business, threatening their profitability. That does not make sense!



I'm all for mileage minimums, and legislation to reduce the amount of gasoline we consume. But not now. Two years ago, when gas was $4/gallon and the economy was still booming, definitely. Don't hamstring dying businesses that you're also supporting. That's choking the dog with one hand, and feeding him with the other.

I'm all for mileage minimums, but disguising them as economic stimulus, and essentially bribing car companies with the lure of government funding IF you play ball with the environmentalists is flat out BULLSHIT.

One question that needs to be asked, asked repeatedly, and asked until Barack gives a straight answer, none of his "Look, blah blah blah, hope, yadda yadda, the last administration, blah blah blah change" BS. The question is:

Why hadn't General Motors been put into bankruptcy yet? Why wasn't it put into bankruptcy instead of getting $13.4 billion in TARP money? George W. Bush and Barack Obama worked together on this scheme. Why? GM said it needed to survive. Unlike the banks, if GM failed, the financial system would remain intact. It's failure was also quite imminent and predictable. Car sales were rapidly decreasing. The unions had such lucrative deals that even cutting jobs would have barely affected the inevitable outcome of GM's monumental problems.

Part of it is sliding down the slippery slope of government bailouts. If you save the AIGs and Citigroups of the world, why not save the GMs and Chryslers? After all, losing GM and Chrysler would mean losing thousands of jobs, crippling the companies that suppy them with parts and equipment, and practically destroying one of America's proudest industries.

Then again, what kinds of jobs would be lost? Union jobs. Who do unions typically support?











And what states would the loss of GM jobs hurt the most? Michigan, obviously. But also Texas. Indiana. Kentucky. Ohio. Kansas. Virginia. Apart from Michigan, Ohio and Indiana would be the most adversely affected.

Hmmmmm... Ohio? Indiana? Virginia? Aren't these election battleground states? And doesn't Michigan have 8 Democratic Reps, and 7 Republicans? Texas is Bush's home state. Call me cynical, but I think Barack was terrified of losing his overwhelming union support, as well as pissing off the swing voters in states like Ohio, Indiana, and Virginia. Bush also deserves the blame of complicity, and he was the President when the $13.4 billion was given to GM. He helped out his home state, as well as some Republican strongholds. He also didn't allow the Democrats to extend their leads in those swing states. He also avoided going down in history as 'the President who presided over the demise of General Motors.'

GM is dead, and we're all paying for the funeral. Ford still works, and Chrysler has an Italian lifeline dangling in front of it. But a few billion dollars have been paid by the government, in your name, and for what? So Barack can get union voters on his side, and win Ohio in 2012.

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