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.
Didn’t we once bail out Mexico? Boy, that would set hair on fire today!
Turner’s just jealous. Seriously.
It’s every republican’s goal to bust unions, cut pensions and make people go without health care.
and I bet, he’s against Obamacare too…right?
how does he explain that to his father with no health insurance.
He doesn’t have to. His father probably agrees with him.
The Masada/Saipan Banzai cliffs stage of our cold civil war is here, where white middle-class people volunteer to sacrifice themselves, and their children, so that the tribe-team-clan can go on, albeit without them.
Just replace `Tenno Heika Banzai’ with `We’re #1!’
Are those events in Japanese history?
Saipan cliffs suicides.
Masada.
evidently there’s a split between national Chamber and local Chambers, who, supported by small businesses, are happy with Obamacare and now are able to afford hc for their employees. In fact have been subscribing to more insurance so insurance cos are happy with this result of Obamacare – contrary to repub talking points. Looked for the story to link, but could not find it (a day or two ago). will post if I find it.
And why aren’t all the President’s People talking about how well the ARRA worked – and is still working? I don’t know, but there are more than a few national reporters in print and on television that should be asking.
They’re not controlled by the CoC. They’re controlled by Big Money. The CoC is just a sub-organization.
The bailout worked great for the country, but bad for the GOP and their backers. SO they’re never going to admit that “it worked”- that statement assumes that we all wanted it to “work” in the same way. The collapse of the big 3 would have been a huge boon to the “transplant” factories in the south where foreign automakers make cheap cars with cheaper non-union labor, and donate handsomely to the southern GOP politicians that have created and preserved this is foreigner friendly environment.
I’m proud of how Obama and his team handled the bailouts, but never at any point were the GOP making good-faith arguments about why it wouldn’t or wouldn’t work. They want to crush the union movement in the US- they understand that’s a much more important fight than even the fate of our auto industry.
Boo:
Yes, the auto bailout worked. And we know why. Don’t let anyone fool you, the UAW took it in the shorts though. The bank bailouts are a different story. And don’t tell me how most of them paid the money back. That’s really not the point.
Actually the pain was shared fairly evenly among the stakeholders. Labor actually got a better deal than it would have gotten if the company was liquidated or if the restructuring happened without the government’s intervention.
We needed EFCA to happen for so many reasons- its the key that unlocks so many other progressive reforms because it preserves labor’s political power, thus preventing the Dem party from having to move even closer to business interests in order to be able to pay for elections. I know, never going to happen- but damn if it doesn’t make me think of not getting it done in the 111th a huge missed opportunity.
Canada had a stake in GM not going belly up. If GM went down, what to do you think would happen to union jobs?
Ford, Chrysler and Toyota would have been in trouble if GM had been made to liquidate.
Turner fail. It’s not as if the federal government intended to permanently retain ownership.
Yet it is Chrysler, the auto company battling for survival since the Reagan era
For the umpteenth time, no, no, no. Chrysler was a profitable company during the 1981-1998 time period (except 1991). It was Mercedes, which essentially bought the company 1998 (it was a merger of un-equals), that screwed C up and left it for dead in 2007.
This is the only thing he ever did right in regard to fighting off the Great Recession. If you remember the money was to be used for financial firms. SEC 2 however gave the President the authority to do whatever necessary to help the economy. I will never support this man because he had the financial institutions(FI’s) by the short hairs and should never have allowed the FI’s to pay bonuses to anyone in 2009 for performance in 2008. None of these firms had the capital to do so and stay in business. Everyone at Chrysler and GM got fired, lost their benefits and took pay cuts and these people get a bonus.
This is what happens when you deal w/ someone who lacks imagination.
revenge is so important. more important than anything