Some Bailouts Are More Equal Than Others
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- December
- 22
Like a complete maroon, I totally forgot to post this cartoon yesterday.
So, some background on my muse for the cartoon:
I’m not exactly sure if the Big 3 would be in such a huge mess if it wasn’t for the banks. Yes they made (with some exceptions) pretty crap cars generally, and the nearly $5 a gallon gas really spanked them. But now gas is practically free again, people are less skittish about running back out to buy a big, rubbishy gas guzzler – but banks won’t lend anyone any of the money you and I gave them. I assume they are using it to pay bonuses instead. Why is it okay to tell car manufacturers what to do with a taxpayer funded loan, when we let the banks do whatever they choose with the money we gave them?
This entry was posted
on Monday, December 22nd, 2008 at 11:49 am by Matt Davies.
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Matt:
Don’t be so hard on yourself—no one can be a “complete maroon” (current President excepted). You are completely forgiven for not posting this yesterday.
“Why is it okay to tell car manufacturers what to do with a taxpayer funded loan, when we let the banks do whatever they choose with the money we gave them?”
It’s not, but until we get someone with the will and intelligence to actually read and understand what is proposed we’re off to the poor house…or to hell in a handbasket…one or the other. Billion Dollar knee jerk savings of institutions without any oversight is rife for disaster—just look at how well the economy is doing after the bank bailout…can’t see it? Neither can I..
Why? Well, Hank Paulson is on temporary loan from Wall Street, and needs to have someplace to go back to when the Bush administration leaves office in 28 days, 10 hours, and 14 minutes. (But who’s counting?) Maybe he’s not cut out to be an auto industry consultant. Same for Ben Bernanke.
Perish the thought, but I can’t help feeling that Senate Republicans – so ideologically averse to oversight of rich bankers – were using the auto bailout as cover for sticking it to the UAW. And the White House – so ideologically averse to oversight of rich bankers – is asking for auto workers’ wage concessions as a condition of the TARP loan. But that would be political opportunism at a time of national crisis, wouldn’t it? So, nah. It can’t possibly be.
I was shocked to learn that UAW members make around $75 an hour. That’s over $150,000 a year for assembly line work! (Toyota/Honda workers make around $45 an hour)
That’s THREE times what a firefighter makes, FOUR times what a teacher makes, and TEN times what an American soldier makes – the people that protect our asses.
All for giving us crappy cars.
By the way, Congress proposed a 3.5% increase in military pay, but the Bush administration objected, and threatened a veto, saying it wasn’t necessary.
http://thinkprogress.org/2007/05/17/bush-military-veto/
Now, THERE’S support for the troops!
bashea—that ”$75/hour” figure is totally bogus, crafted and distributed by the right-wing echo chamber. It includes pension & medical benefits that are owed to retirees (as in, people who are no longer working), in addition to the cash and benefits that are paid to current workers.
The next time you hear something outrageous from Rush, Hannity, Bill-O, whoever, do a bit of goggling to try and ferret out the truth.
-jp
JP’s right. Line workers don’t get anywhere near $75 an hour. Maybe some of the white collar guys do/did, but they aren’t part of the UAW and aren’t getting pilloried by the anti-union crowd. The UAW aren’t blameless, but they are not even close to being the sole cause.
On a side note, if there was some type of national health plan, the auto industry – heck, US industry in general – wouldn’t be in this mess. The big-3 spend more on legacy healthcare and pension benefits than they do on building cars. Foreign car companies don’t have those costs.
jp:
That is the figure provided by several reliable Internet news services I’ve checked, including CNN, as well as NBC news.
If you’ve got a more accurate figure, why not give it up? If you don’t help with the problem, you’re just part of the problem.
However, the fact remains: U.S. automakers make crappy, unreliable cars that we don’t want to buy. I will never buy anything other than a Honda or Toyota.
And here’s the kicker: Most of the Honda and Toyota cars sold in the U.S. are MADE in the U.S. While Ford, Chrysler, and GM have outsourced many manufacturing contracts to foreign plants, mainly in Mexico.
As for Rush, Hannity, Bill-O, and the one vile person you forgot to mention – Anne Coulter – the sooner they are fertilizing the Earth, the better. The same goes for George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, Karl Rove, Donald Rumsfeld, Scooter Libby, and the list goes on and on.
Your serve…
To ALL involved:
The TRUTH is what really matters.
If you have more accurate and reliable information about a subject brought up here by that commie agitator Matt Davies, do share it with us.
I mean, all we hear is $75 an hour for UAW assembly line workers, and $28,000,000 for Ford’s Alan Mulally. If these figures are incorrect, help determine the truth.
Otherwise, we’ll never progress (like the past 8 years)
bashea, the $75 an hour auto worker myth debunked:
http://www.factcheck.org/askfactcheck/do_auto_workers_really_make_more_than.html
Guys,
Has anybody heard about 2 issues that are stumping me:
1) Chrysler’s relationship to its parent: Cerberus Capital Management. If a private equity firm owns 80% of Chrysler, are taxpayers bailing out Cerberus or Chrysler?
2) How come the media don’t remind us what Congress told H.Paulson: the $700 billion was to be used FIRST on the slumping housing market. I thought (help me out here) the $ was for renegotiating mortgages, keep homeowners from defaulting on their mortgages & thus, easing the credit freeze since banks would continue to lend $.
What’s all this moral outrage targeting the UAW if Ford isn’t asking for a handout & Chrysler’s parent co won’t pony up the $ to keep it running?
Shouldn’t we be throwing bricks
Cerberus & Paulson instead ofworking stiffs?Matt:
Thanks for providing the FactCheck link, but I’m still not sure what a UAW member makes.
When I worked for the University of Miami, I made so much per hour, which was multiplied by the number of hours I worked. They then deducted state and federal taxes, health/dental insurance premiums, and parking tag fee (yes, they’re real leeches). I got what was left.
I earned sick days and vacation time, but those were simply given to me as so many hours per paycheck, which added up as the year went on.
So, just why is it so difficult to get an accurate number for an UAW?
It’s starting to sound like auto workers have a pay/pension/medical plan that rivals only what Congress has given themselves.