American Civility

President Bush shows no regard for the will of Congress or the majority of the American people. The Senate rejected the auto bailout. But that doesn’t stop Bush.

A few facts:
- The Big Three first wanted $25 B
- Then they asked for $34 B
- The bill that failed in Congress was for $14 B
- Bush is considering lending the auto makers $8 to $10 B from the Troubled Asset Rrecovery Program (TARP).

A few points:

1) Clearly the auto makers don’t know what they need and Washington is just throwing our money around with reckless abandon.
2) Neither Ford nor Chrysler need the money right away, so this is a GM bailout.
3) The Senate bill failed because the UAW would not assure lawmakers that they would make their labor rates “competitive” with those of Toyota, Honda, Hyundai, and Mercedes which manufacture in Sen. Shelby’s Alabama and with Nissan whose headquarters is in Sen. Corker’s Tennessee, where Volkswagen will build a 2000 employee plant.
4) The Fed, who has authority to lend to non-financial entities in an emergency refused to lend to the Big Three. And they are bankers!
5) Bernanke and Paulson, backed by Bush, came pleading to Congress and the American public to approve $700 for the banking industry otherwise the economy might fall into depression. If that money is not used by banks, it should be returned to the American people.
6) There is no provision in TARP to allow lending to non-financial enterprises.
7) Bush would have to get Congress to approve use of TARP funds outside its original scope or risk breaking the law.
8) Cheney said the administration did not want the Republican Party to be remembered as the Party of Hoover and allow an industry to fail.

Instead, it will be remembered as the party who, 20 years after Reagan, brought Socialism to America.