Michelle Malkin » Dear White House: No means no

Dear White House: No means no

By Michelle Malkin • December 12, 2008 09:29 AM

The Bush administration apparently didn’t understand the message last night.

No means no.

Senate Republicans drew a line in the sand on bailout mania. And now the White House is scrambling to erase it and expand the crap sandwich once more to rescue the UAW.

No means no.

The White House switchboard:

202.456.1414.

***

Puke. Here’s the White House statement.

It is disappointing that while appropriate and effective legislation to assist and restructure troubled automakers received majority support in both houses, Congress nevertheless failed to pass final legislation. The approach in that legislation provided an opportunity to use funds already appropriated for automakers, and presented the best chance to avoid a disorderly bankruptcy while ensuring taxpayer funds go only to firms whose stakeholders were prepared to make the difficult decisions to become viable, competitive firms in the future.

Under normal economic conditions we would prefer that markets determine the ultimate fate of private firms. However, given the current weakened state of the U.S. economy, we will consider other options if necessary – including use of the TARP program — to prevent a collapse of troubled automakers. A precipitous collapse of this industry would have a severe impact on our economy, and it would be irresponsible to further weaken and destabilize our economy at this time.

While the federal government may need to step in to prevent an immediate failure, the auto companies, their labor unions, and all other stakeholders must be prepared to make the meaningful concessions necessary to become viable.

Posted in: Subprime crisis

Printer Friendly

comments (119)

trackbacks (18)

See what others have said

Note from Michelle: This section is for comments from michellemalkin.com's community of registered readers. Please don't assume that I agree with or endorse any particular comment just because I let it stand. A reminder: Anyone who fails to comply with my terms of use may lose his or her posting privilege.

Trackbacks

Trackback URL

Comments

« Older Comments

#570395

On December 12th, 2008 at 1:56 pm, RabbidSquirrel said:

I forgot to add “I told you so” (yeh doesnt make me feel any better either)
#570397

On December 12th, 2008 at 1:57 pm, Weary Citizen said:

Chap is right. The idiot mgt did not have to accept the union proposals and should have seen the pension liability train wreck coming. They could have fought back by theatening to move the plants to non union states if concessions were not granted. The union bosses have to be the biggiest idiots around as well. Refusing to negotiate wage reductions in trade for $B’s to keep the companies form filing bankruptcy? My bet, the union bosses see the writing on the wall and are looting the union tresaury right now. “Get while the getting is good boys”. There is blame on both sides. But that still does not mean the gov’t shoudl bail them out. As far as I am concerned, it is a private matter for them to work out.
#570407

On December 12th, 2008 at 2:02 pm, Dave from Flint said:

A loan turns into a “bailout”, which turns into “destroy the blue collar workers”. I haven’t seen so much hate since I was in the San Francisco airport after I came back from Vietnam.
#570412

On December 12th, 2008 at 2:05 pm, Christian Soldier said:

MI has been a socialist-welfare state for 55+ years–
that’s why a house goes for a $1 in Detroit…
The unions have lost their original mission and now have placed power into a few hands-
absolute power corrupts absolutely…

SOCIALISM never works…
#570439

On December 12th, 2008 at 2:35 pm, lgm said:

Salukidog said #68):

GOP Senators did not destroy those jobs, the UAW did with their greed, and ignorance!

The UAW got the best deal it could for it’s members. That form of “greed” is the American way, at least when managers do it. The UAW also has negotiated givebacks in the past, and presumably will have to accept more.
#570454

On December 12th, 2008 at 2:45 pm, MtsEdge said:

That form of “greed” is the American way, at least when managers do it.

It would be fine if their “agreement” stayed within the confines of their companies, and didn’t involve looting the taxpayers to keep it afloat.
#570457

On December 12th, 2008 at 2:47 pm, nlebou said:

Thank God lgm does not teach my child. I would home school first.
#570467

On December 12th, 2008 at 2:54 pm, CantCureStupid said:

On December 12th, 2008 at 2:47 pm, nlebou said:

Thank God lgm does not teach my child. I would home school first.

I’m with you.
#570478

On December 12th, 2008 at 3:07 pm, Hannibal said:

On December 12th, 2008 at 2:05 pm, Christian Soldier said:

MI has been a socialist-welfare state for 55+ years–

Why don’t you take your comments about Michigan and shove them as far as possible where the sun don’t shine. That will put them right next to that ugly head of yours.
#570479

On December 12th, 2008 at 3:13 pm, jbh45 said:

CAT in the mid 1990’s told UAW to stuff it during a contract dispute. UAW threatned to walk out. CAT said basically, “no problem”. CAT then hired scabs and had one of the most profitable 18 months in the history of the company. After 18 months most of the workers returned under the old contract. The UAW president was fired soon after.

CAT 1
UAW 0

Different day, different industry, but the same story.
#570557

On December 12th, 2008 at 4:36 pm, Gorebot said:

And bin Laden thought screaming planes would bring the country down.

Nope, ya’ need decades of pernicious liberalism, combined with abject government incomptence, to get that done.

And it’s working.

Osama’s ultimate “E-ticket”!
#570720

On December 12th, 2008 at 7:04 pm, alaskangrizzly said:

On December 12th, 2008 at 11:29 am, frontierguy said:

Watched the UAW president in his press conference this morning. Did you guys see his, whoa, whoa, whoa schtick when a media guy had the audacity to ask about wage cuts? $79 an hour to $49 an hour is unacceptable and there are other areas the employers could cut. Man, all i could think was

Mr. Bojangles….dance!!!

Who here would complain about making $49 an hour? I’d take it.

Indeed, even if their hourly starting wage is 28.00 an hour to stand on an assembly line and help build cars for the sections the giant machines aren’t able to automate that is still a gross overpayment for a job that requires no 4 year degree to work on an assembly line building cars. I didn’t see that kind of money till after a year of being out of college in the hospital.

From the article I linked above from MSN’s MoneyCentral:

So the true hourly salary for a union worker is about $55. That’s about twice what the typical American worker makes. And it’s about $10 more than what a nonunionized worker at Honda or Toyota makes, Leonhardt writes.

Where do I sign up for a job making 55 an hour with no degree and some cases get paid that much to not work at all? Unbelievable the balls these people have telling us we need to send them billions upon billions of dollars of your and mine hard earned tax dollars to continue a failed business model. Sign me up, where’s my bailout? Oh I forgot, I’m a middle aged white male who pays his bills and has no debts and is responsible in only buying what I can afford to and not go into debt. And I cling to my guns and my Bible. Crap…

The only thing that stopped this 14-15 dollar bailout from passing yesterday was the UAW refusing to set a hard date of when they will lower the salaries of the workers they represent to match the other car companies kicking their $#@! up and down the block and back. They think they can take on the whole world and give us the middle finger and would rather the million jobs that depend on these companies being up and running go without work than take the much needed paycut to become competitive with other car companies.

The UAW is a corrupt, bloated dinosaur that is the core of the problems with all of the Big 3. Which is why their competitors leave them in the dust. If they do get bailed out illegally by TARP I will never buy an American car again.
#570724

On December 12th, 2008 at 7:13 pm, chapoutier said:

Indeed, even if their hourly starting wage is 28.00 an hour to stand on an assembly line and help build cars for the sections the giant machines aren’t able to automate that is still a gross overpayment for a job that requires no 4 year degree to work on an assembly line building cars. I didn’t see that kind of money till after a year of being out of college in the hospital.

I thought the correct wage was whatever you could get, i.e, what the market would bear.

Don’t be bitter just because you chose to do something else.
#570727

On December 12th, 2008 at 7:16 pm, alaskangrizzly said:

I thought the correct wage was whatever you could get, i.e, what the market would bear.

Don’t be bitter just because you chose to do something else.

Pfft. You know and I know the only reason they are overpaid is because of the UAW. But you were right earlier that the Big 3 share the blame for not putting their foot down to the UAW over the decades and should have forced strikes and fired the lot of them and started over with new workers decades ago. Which is why the need to go bankrupt now and reorganize with a viable business plan.
#570735

On December 12th, 2008 at 7:30 pm, alaskangrizzly said:

I thought the correct wage was whatever you could get, i.e, what the market would bear.

Oh, and I forgot… It appears the market “can’t bear” 30 dollars an hour for a job to pay workers for a job “so easy a caveman could do it” in this current market. So who is going to force the UAW to realize this fact and “adjust” their workers salaries accordingly to what the market “can bear currently”?
#570738

On December 12th, 2008 at 7:36 pm, chapoutier said:

Oh, and I forgot… It appears the market “can’t bear” 30 dollars an hour for a job to pay workers for a job “so easy a caveman could do it” in this current market. So who is going to force the UAW to realize this fact and “adjust” their workers salaries accordingly to what the market “can bear currently”?

Fair enough, but don’t whine about what they used to be able to get. And they do realize they have to make concessions, but again, don’t blame them for 1) not wanting to do them out of the goodness of their heart and 2) trying to minimize the losses to the workers.
#570740

On December 12th, 2008 at 7:41 pm, alaskangrizzly said:

Fair enough, but don’t whine about what they used to be able to get. And they do realize they have to make concessions, but again, don’t blame them for 1) not wanting to do them out of the goodness of their heart and 2) trying to minimize the losses to the workers.

Fair enough. But it needs to be done, or we’ll just end up shoveling them more tax payer money for the foreseeable future because their old business models will not work going forward. Which is why it boggles the mind that the Democrats and UAW want to through money at a problem they know will just come back in a few months with the current business model…
#570796

On December 12th, 2008 at 10:02 pm, love2rumba said:

Fair enough, but don’t whine about what they used to be able to get. And they do realize they have to make concessions, but again, don’t blame them for 1) not wanting to do them out of the goodness of their heart and 2) trying to minimize the losses to the workers.
#570813

On December 12th, 2008 at 10:36 pm, Gianni said:

#102
On December 12th, 2008 at 3:07 pm, Hannibal said

Does the truth hurt?
#570817

On December 12th, 2008 at 10:39 pm, Salukidog said:

Hey, I have no problem with someone negotiating the best contract they can get for themselves or their clients. However, if that contract forces their company to go bankrupt, then don’t expect the rest of us to pay your salary! Both sides screwed up the Big 3, and both sides should pay the price. Both sides have gotten very rich over the past few decades, and they pissed away all that money. The only fair way out of the mess is to let them fail, and let the rebuilding of a viable auto industry begin.
#570822

On December 12th, 2008 at 10:45 pm, Wellsy said:

Hey, I have no problem with someone negotiating the best contract they can get for themselves or their clients. However, if that contract forces their company to go bankrupt, then don’t expect the rest of us to pay your salary!

You may be right. Sad thing is, this makes the labor unions little better than sports agents rather than some supposed guardians of employee liberty.
#570949

On December 13th, 2008 at 10:35 am, Hannibal said:

On December 12th, 2008 at 10:36 pm, Gianni said:

Does the truth hurt?

The truth? That’s rich! I’ll wait to read it in the papers. Gianni Declares Michigan as a Longtime Socialist Welfare State. The Truth Finally Proclaimed.
#571027

On December 13th, 2008 at 1:08 pm, tamarah180 said:

GM opens USD300 million assembly plant in Russia

SEE ALSO: ALL GM ARTICLES
ST. PETERSBURG, RUS. November 7, 2008: General Motors (GM) opened today a $300 million, flexible assembly plant in St. Petersburg, Russia, in presence of President Dmitry Medvedev. The plant will add 70,000 units of capacity to more than 100,000 already available to GM at joint venture and partner facilities in the country. It will build the Opel Antara and Chevrolet Captiva SUVs and, as of late 2009, the all-new Chevrolet Cruze compact sedan. The plant features a flexible, modern design that can accommodate a variety of different models.

“Today’s plant opening underlines GM’s strong commitment to Russia,” said GME President Carl-Peter Forster at today’s opening ceremony. “This new plant will cement our position as the number one non-domestic manufacturer in Russia, a high-volume growth market with outstanding potential.” The new GM plant in Shushary on the outskirts of St. Petersburg is the third manufacturing site to build GM vehicles in Russia. In Togliatti, the GM Avtovaz joint venture plant is manufacturing the Chevrolet Niva SUV, and in Kaliningrad GM’s partner, Avtotor, is assembling various Chevrolet, Cadillac and Hummer models for the Russian market.

“GM’s investment in this modern, flexible car plant is an investment in the future,” said Valentina Matvienko, Governor of the St. Petersburg region. “We are proud to be the home of the first General Motors plant to open in the company’s second century.”

GM sales boom in Russia
GM nearly doubled industry growth in Russia from January-September 2008 with sales up 44 percent to 256,765 cars and SUVs. GM reached a market share of 11 percent and was the leading international vehicle manufacturer in Europe’s second biggest market.

Chevrolet sales in Russia grew by 33.5 percent or 44,145 units in the first nine months of this year to 175,798. Opel is the fastest growing brand in the Russian vehicle market with sales rocketing to 78,051 in the January-September period, which corresponds to a growth rate of 73.3 percent.

Top quality through standardised manufacturing methods
“Our St. Petersburg plant will work to the same high standards that have recently resulted in major quality awards for our cars,” said Carl-Peter Forster. GM’s new employees in St. Petersburg have undergone intensive training in the company’s global manufacturing system which focuses on top quality in all processes, continuous improvement and involvement of the workforce.
#571028

On December 13th, 2008 at 1:09 pm, tamarah180 said:

Link for above article

Sorry.
#571128

On December 13th, 2008 at 5:27 pm, secondsight said:

Frankly, I think it is a damn shame that lgm isn’t typing his silly comments on a computer designed and built by unionized workers with parts made in unionized plants.
#571144

On December 13th, 2008 at 7:07 pm, alaskangrizzly said:

On December 13th, 2008 at 5:27 pm, secondsight said:

Frankly, I think it is a damn shame that lgm isn’t typing his silly comments on a computer designed and built by unionized workers with parts made in unionized plants.

I think Cuba and North Korea are still under under a trade embargo so any crappy computer they could build and sell would be unavailable to him currently.