Sometimes it seems like the GOP is part of a borg controlled by the U.S. Chamber of Commerce. So, it should be interesting to see how the rank-and-file Republicans respond to this joint announcement from the Chamber and the AFL-CIO.
“America’s working families and business community stand united in applauding President Obama’s call to create jobs and grow our economy through investment in our nation’s infrastructure.
“Whether it is building roads, bridges, high-speed broadband, energy systems and schools, these projects not only create jobs and demand for businesses, they are an investment in building the modern infrastructure our country needs to compete in a global economy.
“With the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the AFL-CIO standing together to support job creation, we hope that Democrats and Republicans in Congress will also join together to build America’s infrastructure.”
However, I am not optimistic. Take the case of Rep. Michael Turner (R-OH), for example. He has introduced a bill to create a constitutional amendment that would ban the government from ever bailing out the economy again by taking on partial ownership (through stocks) of a private business.
Turner, whose father was a longtime GM employee who lost his health insurance benefits in GM’s restructuring, told The Hill it is wrong to have the federal government “owning companies and making decisions about winners and losers.”
Without government intervention, GM would no longer exist; Chrysler would no longer exist. And, along with them, countless little Tool & Die companies would no longer exist. But, contrary to the Republicans’ fever-dreams, the bailout worked spectacularly well.
Chrysler has seen nine straight months of year-over-year sales increases, and is tackling its reputation of not introducing new models by bringing 16 new vehicles to the market…
The big companies the government owned stakes in are all emerging from the financial crisis looking as if they will live on, and the Treasury Department could still earn a profit on much of its investment.
Treasury has earned $12 billion on the Citigroup bailout, and might have made a profit off its stake in General Motors if it had waited to sell more of its shares until after the company’s stock price rose. Reports indicate the government may even make a profit off its stake in AIG as it sells its shares over the next few years.
Yet it is Chrysler, the auto company battling for survival since the Reagan era, that might be the best argument in favor of the bailout.
Check out their Fiat 500. You should start seeing a bunch of those on the road soon.
Thanks to Barack Obama.
