The GOP is "in a deep funk."

Understatement of the year.  George Clinton is presumed jealous.

http://thepajamapundit.com/

On NBC this morning, "Mad Money" stated that even with the rescue money granted by Congress, banks are not lending because of devaluation of product.  I'm no money genius, but I think he'll have to come up with a better reason.  Banks have been lending consumers money to purchase  cars for years with the full knowledge that as soon as a car drives off the lot (used or new), it has lost some of its value.  Other items, like washers, dryers, and other major appliances also don't increase in value.  What is the REAL reason the banks won't loan money as they were supposed to?

What a disgusting lie the repugnant ones are now trying to spread by blaming all the ills on the UAW instead of the truly guilty auto execs that drove the auto industry into the ditch because they did not want to face reality.  Shame on the repugnant ones for trying to avoid the blame they richly deserve for supporting the white collar criminal execs!

We need to support our union blue collar middle class before the repugnant ones make them extinct.  Because we've lost so much unionized labor and those good paying jobs with benefits our economy is so screwed up now.

"Clara in Kansas City, could you be any more self-righteous and condescending when you write?   We'd all like to be as smart as you are, of course, but not everyone can quite achieve that disdain for anyone who might actually have the nerve to disagree with you."  The Audacity of Snobbery

Hey Audacity of Snobbery - Have you already forgotten all the self-righteousness and condescension of the past 8 years as you repugnant ones trashed us Liberals and Democrats?  Maybe if you spent more time reading intelligent books and news articles instead of whining you could be smart too!

"Dearest Clara: The market is all about the future and is nothing about the past. Obama has stated he intends to raise taxes like income taxes, corporate taxes, capital gains taxes."
JT - New Orleans

Hey JT - The market is now all about "Psychology" instead of sound economic fundamentals as it used to be around 40 years ago.  It's about expectations and past performance as in did some company meet expectations for the past quarter or year.  When one forgets history one is doomed to repeat it and you fools forgot about what caused the Great Depression and now you've managed to doom us all to relive it.  The markets are nothing but legalized gambling and only a fool would put money into it.

Stop whining about raising taxes because the deficit financed tax cuts of the past 28 years of Tinkle Down economics have driven us into this deep credit hole.  When Ronny Raygunz took office the national debt just hit a trillion dollars and the debt service was $35 billion.  Now with the debt over $10 trillion the debt service is over $400 billion and now we are all suffering from the irresponsible tax cut welfare given to the rich and greedy.  Your vaunted tax cuts were a short term benefit that has become a long term negative drag on our economy.  By proposing to rebuild our consumer based economy from the bottom up Obama does have a good plan to fix the problems you irresponsible spoiled brats caused and by upping taxes on the rich and greedy he is doing the responsible adult thing by trying to balance the budget.  We've had 28 years of wealth redistribution upwards and now we need to right the imbalance by redistributing it back downwards.  Before trashing us Dems you should understand how the economy works instead of paying homage to feel good lies that only help get crooked repugnant one politicians elected.

Congress: be invited (because your a national interest)..show up..get asked some questions...go home with millions..
I guess John Q public isn't that important or needy..?
Congress has now become the lobbyist for the lobbyist with money to spare..
Sad..you talk about a flip flop...Change has happened and we can't even see the light at the end of the tunnel...

The big 3 auto makers really caused their own economic problems on many levels. Showing up in Washington the way they did, was not politically smart. These Auto CEO's looked "greedy and needy," which are never good combinations. If the auto bailout fails?? It will be a big learning experience for the auto industry in America. They need to retool, restructure, and rethink their situation very quickly. That is fact!  

Hopes for a last-minute compromise on auto industry aid are fading for the 110th Congress...And it appears there may not be a congressional vote on a bailout this week and, perhaps, for the rest of this year.

==========
The saddest part of this is while the executives are flying around in private jets (which they won't give up), thousands of workers will likely be out of a job.  The upstart of all of this is while both Democrats and Republicans decided against the bailout, guess who's going to get the blame when the car companies fold (especially from the McCain sore-losers here).  Say it with me now - OBAMA!

61 Days Until Inauguration Day!
http://jawillie.blog.com

I don't believe any of these industries and their corporate titams should receive a dime until they produce a plan to the public showing the divestiture of their multi-million corporate jets, salaries, bonuses and perks, reinstatement of employee pensions and benefits that they have raided over the years and specifics as to what restructuring they plan and timetables for accomplishment.

I cannot beleive that the republicans-after their big losses--do not see that those of us who work and are unionized will pulverize them for not supporting the Auto bailout after giving all of that nomey to AIG.  2010 will be a rout and I, who never worked for local politicians, will make it my business to ensure that anyone that votes against the bailout for Auto will lose!  Lastly, Joe Scarboro is a posturer. His disdain for Obama is so obviously jealousy, its sickening.  Get a life Joe and get some backbone Mika, I'm going for CNN in the AM.

Talking about Nero fiddleing while Rome burns, bush is content to let the auto industry die and millions of people go down the tubes for what ever his personal reasona are. What a sad man. These ar truly very bad times in world history.

The whole resistance to bailing out the big three automakers is a final attempt to kill the auto unions. Republicans see the big three going down as a union buster. The unions will lose power, but the federal pensions guarantee fund would pick up the automakers pension obligations.
Republicans distaste for unions would saddle the government with the burden of the auto pensions and health care. No vote for a bail out would be needed, but for the federal government the net obligation would be greater than the proposed bailout. The republicans would still get their Christmas for the banking industry and the bonus of breaking the unions back.
To compensate for the millions of jobs loses; the Republicans are willing to extend the unemployment insurance program. The extension of jobless benefits would be a temporary and expensive fix and probably would not bridge the employment gap created by the collapsed of the automakers.

Cars made by Chrysler, Ford and GM have a fuel efficiency of 14 mpg to 29 mpg. This is based on 2007 models per http://www.fueleconomy.gov/  Did you know that GM and Ford are building very fuel efficient cars? Cars that offer better fuel economy than any brand of car being made in the USA.

GM Opel cars including an SUV with combined cycle fuel economy from 37.2 to 62.8 mpg using both gasoline and diesel engines. If these figures are based on imperial gallons, using US gallons it would be 29.8 mpg to 50.2 mpg.

Ford Europe cars with combined cycle fuel economy from 40.9 to 62.8 mpg using both gasoline and diesel engines. If these figures are based on imperial gallons, using US gallons it would be 32.7 mpg to 50.3 mpg.

We are about to spent millions for new car designs when we could just duplicate existing tooling to make them here. Why wait for 2010 when you can buy cars using gasoline or diesel engines that offer 50% less fuel consumption? Before we give the so called big three a bailout, we need to force them to start making these cars. Annual registration fees based on the vehicle’s fuel efficiency should also be enacted.  

I have a question.  Congress had no problem bailing out the fat cats on Wall Street.  To date we have not really seen any positive results.  Oh, I forgot AIG is still taking their execs/financial planners on expensive trips as incentives for "work well done".  How have the execs at our largest financial institutions been any more responsible than the execs at the big three?  They have all fallen short while making huge salaries. They have not been good stewards for their clients, but has congress been good stewards for us? While I am not sure a bailout is the way to go I do know for sure that our government can't allow 3 million people to lose their jobs.  They have done a rotten job of handling our current situation and it appears they are the brink of making it worse.  I will agree that the execs from the big three were a little blind when they made the decision to fly into Washington on corporate jets, but how many blind decisions does congress make on a daily basis. Maybe the corporate jet thing is kind of like the executive trips taken by those at AIG or the astronomical bonus structure of those on Wall Street. One thing I feel in my heart of hearts, they all look out for #1 first and then the rest of us just bring up the rear. Oh, maybe you could tell Mika to quit her whining on Morning Joe.  That is all she has done this week. Maybe she would like to contribute some of her big salary to those folks who will be out of work if GM fails.  We have never driven anything but American made GM cars and have always gotten great quality & good resale. Its called taking pride in what you buy and then taking care of it once you have it.  I sure would not trade my American made vehicle for a Japanese made vehicle.  

With all the perks our politicians get, how can they point their fingers at anyone else? Talk about over
the top benefits and retirement plus numerous other
gifts. And, the staff and costs of staff each one
is allowed to have.
And, this is all paid for by taxpayer money.
How about a chapter 11 for our government??

A Pedestrian Looks at the Auto Industry

The Big Three US auto manufactures are in trouble.  This crises result from the current economic situation intersecting with poor management, our government’s inability to legislate appropriate fuel-economy and emissions standards and the general population buying into a gas-guzzling juggernaut mind set.

The question now is, should taxpayers bailout the auto industry?  I believe yes and for three reasons.  First, size does matter.  Allowing the industry to fail at this time would further devastate our economy.  Many have pointed out the number of jobs that would be lost; resulting in less taxes, less consumer buying power and greater unemployment insurance payouts.  Second, a much needed infrastructure is already in place but would be lost if the industry collapsed.  No matter the current state of the industry there is no question that it has many valuable resources that could be used for a common good.  It has manufacturing facilities, a network of suppliers and a large trainable and productive workforce geared to meeting our transportation needs.  Third, this is an industry that does serve a common good—and can expand on that if properly encouraged.  Easily accessed and reliable transportation is necessary for the health of our economy and for our national security.

How much help should be offered and in what form?  Obviously dollars are needed; especially in the short term.  The industry would also benefit from, in the longer-term, government funded Research and Development.  And finally there is a need to quickly put in place other “business friendly” programs—specifically the Obama Health Care Reforms which would help lower industry overhead.  The amount of public resources used for the bailout should be determined by what it would take for the industry to achieve sustained profitability.  

Since this would be public moneys—resources, it’s reasonable and proper that there be “strings”.  First, there needs to be assurances that good business practices are implemented.  There should be real and not token changes made in how these companies do business.  Second, it should be a requirement that the companies develop and follow a timeline for converting whole fleets to zero-emissions fully electric vehicles and those vehicles should be designed to be fully recyclable with the manufacturing company geared to handle that recycling.  Third, a reasonable but firm payback schedule should be put in place.  

Such a plan would put the industry back on firm footing while also positively impacting global warming and reducing reliance of carbon based fuels.  But based on industry management mind sets this would be a hard sell.  GM’s CEO testified before congress that business practices had nothing to do with the company’s problems—this man is delusional and if the majority of top brass throughout the industry believe the same there is no hope and no bailout should be attempted.

Perhaps those auto-execs should contact Sarah Palin and get her advice on how to sell their corporate planes on E-Bay.

no bailout!

the next time a begger wants money, try coming to us humbly. Humble does not mean flying in 3 separate private jets! you tore your perverbial azz with that mr CEO.  I would love to take a flight first class. You three; however, thought that was beneath you and decided to take your own planes to beg for money!

No Bailout.  With the sweet deals negotiated through the UAW contracts, the workers on the line will be fine through the bankruptcy process. Fire each CEO and rehire new faces with lots of brains for less money and less egos!

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