The Republican party have returned to the glory days on Herbert Hoover. Their attitude after busting the budget for the first six years of Bush and the next two years blocking progress, is to all of a sudden become fiscal conservatives. It is especially galling for the Southern Senators like Shelby talk to about how it is irresponsible to give 14 Billion to Detroit while he sits is in a state that has given away the farm to get foreign automakers like Toyota to come to his state. Taslk about conflict on interest. I hope but fear this is also the Republicans way of doing union busting since they have heaped scorn on the UAW and used that as a reason to vote against the money. It is also hypocritical to take the CEO's to task about things like flying in on private jets, when they have already voted for billions more for Wall Street firms and never questioned those CEO's about how they arrived in D.C., and put no extra restraints on how they would use the money. They would be better off changing current laws that make it hard for companies like GM to downsize and eleminate dealers, with the myriad of state laws that protect dealerships and add over $1000 to the cost of every American car. I am no fan of President Bush but it looks like he will step up to tide the Big 3 over with the TARP funds. At least there is one thing I can be grateful for with him.
There is no doubt that the Big 3 systems have to be reformed. To put 14 billion and maybe as much as 100 billion into business as usual would be the ultimate bailout sink hole. The industry has to downsize, the UAW have to tolerate layoffs without large continued salary cost, and those workers need to be retrained for other work with a government subsidy. We did this successfully in Oklahoma when GM closed it's Oklahoma City plant and the state paid for retraining. Workers could be put to use in manufacturing something other than cars like wind turbines, and hybrid batteries. The Big 3 need to embrace green technology, and management needs to take the same hits that labor is taking. I don't know about a Car Czar, but some oversight that brings the industry to car 2.0 from 1.0 is essential. It is a risk, but this country cannot afford to lose up to 3 million jobs right now, and to completely gut manufacturing. It looks like the UAW understands this, so now we need to see if the executives understand this or if not tell them to leave. After all, the UAW didn't design the cars or make management decisions including signing the union contracts on the management side. Currently new workers coming on line make $14 dollars an hour and with compensation make $25, the same as Toyota. We need to continue this reform and create a leaner and meaner American car industry that is pointed towards alternative energy, and green technology manufacturing. All industries including real estate will be affected by what we do now.
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