The Democrats might have been rescued from themselves last night, when the Republicans refused to extend a bridge loan to General Motors and Chrysler. The Corker compromise bill, which is the only bill that was likely to pass, was a bruising insult to the labor unions. It was better than letting the auto industry go bankrupt, but a lot worse than any bill Congress might produce in three week’s time. It was also a lot worse than anything Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson might do now to rescue General Motors.
But this is a game of chicken. If Paulson does nothing, General Motors is finished, and probably Chrysler, as well. If the GOP is really out to smash the auto unions, they can do so by forcing bankruptcy. No union contract will survive Chapter 11 proceedings. Ironically, it may be Bush and Cheney who are the voices of reason within the Republican Party:
On Wednesday, Dick Cheney met with Senate Republicans and emphasized the importance of keeping the American automotive industry afloat. “If we don’t do this, we will be known as the party of Herbert Hoover forever,” the vice president said.
The Neo-Hooverite caucus apparently seems willing to wear the label with pride.
When you’ve let your anti-union ideology move you far to the right of Dick Cheney, you know you’re out on a limb. It appears the Senate Republicans decided to play their own game of chicken with the Bush administration. They said, essentially, ‘if you don’t want to go down in history as the modern-day Hoover administration, bail Detroit out on your own’. And now it is up the Bush administration to do just that.
Remarkably, the Democrats made some obscene concessions, but they hung in there, didn’t fold, and eventually called the Senate GOP’s bluff. Bush knows what the collapse of GM on his watch will mean for his legacy. And it might just lead him to do the right thing for once. We shall see.
