Will Killing the Big 3 Bailout Kill the GOP?

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No money down that drain! None! The management has had years of knowing that the foreign cars were better and what Americans wanted. And the unions kept asking for more and getting it. Pay back time folks. Let them go Chapter 11 and likely Toyota or one of the other successful companies who make care profitably in America will buy the production lines and hire the workers at the going wage. That is almost a sure thing because the demand for cars has only changed by the economy and the other companies will suffer equally then recover as the economy recovers.

Tom Karasek of WA 10:07PM December 06, 2008

I just think this whole thing is ridiculous. First they fly private, then ask for a bailout. Now, they're like, oops, we looked bad, let's drive 500 miles in a hybrid. I think it makes them look even worse, pretty darn ridiculous, because it's obviously for show.
No one asked them to drive across the darn country, people are just wary of spending billions of dollars on companies that are failing, AND that are fiscally irresponsible.
Driving across the country is even worse - that means they're wasting however many hours driving not actually accomplishing anything.
Geez, just fly commercial. It doesn't cost $40,000, and you won't waste days driving back and forth.
I don't think we should bail them out, though. Why should we pay because they're failing, fiscally irresponsible, and producing vehicles no one wants to / can afford to buy. Sure, the fallout would be huge, but how will the economy get properly back on its feet?
These companies are failing because of their own poor decisions and strategy. It's pretty simple. They're supplying more than we're demanding. That doesn't deserve a bailout. It requires a strategy team to envision the needs of their customers. Which clearly they haven't done. Oh, and they're fiscally irresponsible.
http://thisisee.wordpress.com

Beth of DC 1:01PM December 03, 2008

I think Pat is right, unfortunately. This is another one of those crap sandwiches...

Dean of MN 5:38PM December 02, 2008

Governments in general do a poor job of allocating capital to industry. In the seventies and eighties Britain wasted something North of ten billion dollars trying to prop up their auto industry and British Leyland with entirely predictible results: Leyland is gone and the ten billion dollars is gone.
Ten billion dollars in investment capital, misallocated by the government, went missing from the British economy. That's ten billion dollars of investment capital for companies that could make a sound economic case for their future. How many jobs did that cost as a result?
Now we are going to repeat the British mistake with the U.S. auto industry and several times the money. Predictible results include drawing investment capital away from viable, future oriented businesses and destroying at least as many jobs in the wider economy as you think are being saved (temporarily) in the auto industry.
And the money will be irretrievably gone.

Fred of WI 4:47PM December 02, 2008

Assuming GM gets its requested bailout from we the tax payers, what then? Will they make wise business decisions? Build cars people want? Cut their layers of over paid redundant management? Change their culture? With out those guarantees, GM employees can’t last long anyway.

Yvonne of CA 4:02PM December 02, 2008

It took them 40 years but the Big 3 failed us with their poor management practices and arrogance. Good businesses thrive, bad ones go under...this is as it should be.
Being closely affilitated with the auto industry I can say our elected officals and the general public have no idea of the waste and mismanagement that goes on within the walls of those auto makers. These so-called captains of industry can not navigate their way out of a closet with a map and a flashlight. Go ahead bail them out, throw good money after bad and let's see if in 4 -6 months they are don't have more excuses about why they can't turn their loser operations around. No one wants to buy their products. The attitude of the Big 3 is the same as was the attitude of the royalty at Versaille and look what that got them.
We can learn a lot from the younger generation who often times see things more clearly. A young woman put it succinctly about the Detroit 3, She said "Don't you get it, we DON'T want your big, ugly cars." It is not that Detroit doesn't get it, they choose to not get it.
Instead of plowing money into has beens, let's give it to companies that have vision and foresight; how about starting with Tesla Motors and companies like them, they are on the right track?
Our elected officials have a poor track record of keeping tabs on how our money is spent, why should we believe it will be any different this time?
Yes their will be fall out, but there will be anyway...the problem no one talks about is the over supply of vehicles in this country. There are 981 cars per 1,000 people in th U.S., we are at saturation. Something has to give, too many car companies vying for too few custoemrs, so the companies that produce good, reliable, durable and fuel efficient vehicles gain market share and those that don't will go away. Survival of the fittest.
Just remember you read it here first, if Congress gives them the dough let's see what happens in March or April. Any one want to bet?

Jerry Candela of CA 3:57PM December 02, 2008

When they came for the manufacturers,
I did not speak out;
I was not a manufacturer.
When they came for the service industries,
I remained silent;
I was not a service worker.
When they came for the hunter-gatherers,
there was no one left to speak out.

Luther of IL 3:07PM December 02, 2008

Pat is right (this time). You can't drive the Chevy to the levee for "American Pie" if there is no Chevy. We must remake the big 3, not just bail them out. But voters embracing a GOP-advocated liquidation? No way. No how.

of 2:49PM December 02, 2008