When you give to one you gotta expect others to come out with their hands open. Sure hope they plan this help like they did the original Chrysler bailout. It was a loan NOT a handout!

The reason no one has been able to tap into Chrysler’s retirees’ money is because it was put into a trust fund that couldn’t be touched for anything but funding the retirement program. Not even the best lawyers have been able to find a loophole in that trust which was part of the bailout plan. All of the Chrysler workers had to take concessions and were given stocks to make up for it. The stocks couldn’t be sold until years later when Chrysler was profitable again.

and tell them not to vote for any new stimulus or handouts in 2008.

The Democrats want a bloated spending spree under the guise of “stimulus” and they want to rush it through and get that ballooning of the deficit on Bush’s watch.

President Bush and Congressional Republicans should not agree on any more stimulus or handouts.

If Obama and Pelosi want to go on a spending spree, let it be on their watch, where they can take responsibility for it.

Yes, we should contact Congress and the White House. Should that fail, however, the final vote is in our hands. Quite simply, no amount of bailout money will help the moochers if we do buy/support their products. I don’t care whether it’s an auto manufacturer, brokerage firm, home builder, etc. If they take the money, we keep ours or spend it with someone who isn’t on the take.

We can tax the Japanese automakers who have built non-union plants across the southern part of the US and give the money to the Big Three so they can build more plants in Canada and Mexico and to the UAW so they can pay for the millions of man-hours that were spent working on Obama’s campaign.

Is this a great country or what?

This is ridiculous. GM, Ford and Chrysler are not “too big to fail” nor are they some great part of our economy that must be saved. Crappy companies die all the time. If the state of Michigan wants to help out their local companies, then fine, but don’t expect the rest of us to “buy American” when they keep screwing us.

anyway. That’s the biggest problem they have. I have several friends that bought Chrysler and they always had problems.
I have test driven and rented Chryslers. I can say that they never handled well, felt under powered and quality was lacking.

But I agree with persiflage. All the employees at these companies should put their money where their mouths are.

After all, it has been said that the Big Three are actually health care providers that happen to manufacture automobiles, so this should fit in nicely with the socialized medicine thing.

Hell, we’re all Marxists now!

I don’t really know if they are ignorant of the market or just trying to continue to be “elect-able”.

The entire world automaking industry is in distress. The American and European (especially German) markets are already saturated. Given the current crisis, middle-class Americans will never be tempted to buy a new car. Second hand cars for example have more probability to be sold than a brand new one.

Japanese and Korean automakers are still kicking because they have been able to produce “low cost” automobiles that fit Asian markets (high deamnd with lower capacity to pay). The unit cost of production of automobiles in America cannot compete with other international competitors.

Those billions of dollars will never save the automaking industry whose problem is demand related and not really “supply-related”, unless we are now targeting low cost automobiles to compete in Asian market, where import barriers are too restrictive for American producers.

I sure do like that free cheese!!

There are lots of good suggestions in this thread, but in my estimation the genie is out of the bottle.

Thank you very much George( not very compassionate to the taxpayer) Bush.

I sure that had nothing to do with conservatives staying home November 4.

Regards

they didn’t get into this mess by themselves. Government regulations and attempts at control through NHTSA and CAFE standards have helped cripple the industry.

It’s easy to say “Let the Big 3 die. They deserve it! No handouts! We’ll just buy Toyotas.” Fine. What should be done with the MILLIONS of people who will be unemployed if even one of them goes completely under?

Think about the chain of job destruction if GM goes completely under. CNN.com had a story about it yesterday.

http://money.cnn.com/2008/11/05/autos/autojoblosses/index.htm?source=yahoo_quote

Sobering stuff. Giving the Big 3 a bailout/ handout/ loan/ whatever else you want to call it may really be the lesser evil.

One result of this request by automakers is it helps debunk a myth that grates on me: Democrats are for the little guy and Republicans are the party of Big Business. Wrong!

Large corporations often support Democrats and Federal intiatives when it suits their purpose. Sure the automakers bemoan Federal mandates when it comes to CAFE standards and emissions regulations, but they can easily moprh into pro-government beliefs when tariffs or bailouts become issues. Big Business often relies on Federal help on regulations because regulations can act as barriers to entry for new competitors that may threaten the industry status quo. Did you know that most major carriers oppossed the Airline Deregulation Act of 1978? Many large corporations max out donotions to both parties. It’s the small business that don’t have floors of lawyers, teams of accounts or PACs that feel the Federal burden the most.

I’ll be intersesting to see what comes of the Henry Waxman (D-CA) challenge for Energy and Commerce Chairmanship against John Dingell (D-MI). No doubt the autmoakers are following that closely.