When Republicans say things like this, I wonder if they mean it and if they understand the implications of what they’re saying.
Michigan Rep. Candice Miller (R) said the president’s latest steps meant he now essentially “owns” the auto industry, and is responsible for its survival.
“The president and the auto task force have now determined that they know better how to run these complex manufacturing organizations and are going to force changes,” Miller asserted. “By implementing these changes, they now become accountable for achieving success — accountable for the jobs, accountable for the livelihoods of the families which are at stake and accountable for the survival of American manufacturing.”
I know it is horrible for the federal government to fire the CEO of a company that has failed so utterly that they require taxpayer money to keep their factory doors open, but did Rep. Candice Miller seriously think that wouldn’t happen? As far as the government (or the people) owning General Motors, that has nothing to do with General Motors’ senior management, but with the amount of money we’ve been forced to invest. We can pretend we don’t own these companies or we can act like we do.
What’s odd is that Miller responded this way on a day when Obama announced he was not immediately taking over these companies and in which he denied them, for the time being, their funding requests. What I really wonder is what it would be like to have a president that didn’t take responsibility for safeguarding the livelihoods of American families and the future of American manufacturing. Oh wait! We just got rid of one of those presidents.
The GOP’s wailing and gnashing of teeth doesn’t even make sense. They are just setting up impossible standards so that they came blame Obama when he doesn’t meet them. If only he hadn’t had the temerity to fire some CEO’s all of this would have worked out great for the auto industry.
Funny, but true:
They’re all over the map. Perhaps they’ve realized they can’t go after Obama on this without somebody bringing up Bush’s auto bailout in December.
This tells me that there’s another fracture in the GOP that I hadn’t considered.
McCain, Voinivich, Issa – these guys are talking like what normal people would consider “fiscal conservatives” – you want tax money, you have to make changes. Simple. McCain, as always, feels the need to demagogue on the point, but it’s still in the same ballpark.
McCotter, Alexander, and Corker – these guys are talking like economic ideologues of a bankrupt ideology. Having the government come in and actually rescue companies shatters their worldview. So they’re jumpy as all get-out about it.
Interesting. I hadn’t considered that it might be possible to drive a wedge between the GOPers who still think of themselves as “fiscal conservatives” and the other nutters – I figured the “fiscal conservatives” knew exactly what the score was and just liked to mouth pretty words.
.
accountability. A word not listed in the GOP dictionary.
"But I will not let myself be reduced to silence."“We can pretend that we don’t own these companies, or we can act like we do.” Does that translate to pretending that we don’t own AIG and the others, but acting as though we do own Detroit? That is what it feels like from here.
I would support changing the CEO’s at the big bank recipients of TARP. AIG already changed CEO’s. I don’t expect to see any movement on this until the stress-tests are done. I think a bank that fails its stress-test will lose its CEO.
After eight years of the most irresponsible and criminal presidency in American history, you’d really think these idiots would have nothing to say. Have they no shame?
In order for shame to apply one has to care about the opinions of others – the don’t.