The UAW's Concession? A Giant Middle Finger to the People

It's a Christmas miracle! The White House gave the UAW....I mean Chrysler and GM....a $17 billion bailout with some loose conditions. One of the urgings from President Bush was that the UAW make deeper wage cuts to ease strain on the manufacturers. Well, just like any standard con artist, UAW President Ron Gettlefinger has changed the rules mid-way through the game. Instead of meeting with the auto companies to renegotiate wages and benefits as Bush had requested, Gettlefinger now says that the UAW will work with Obama after he takes office to renegotiate the bailout terms instead! He says he will work to remove the wage cut requirement. How fun. "Give us the money.......thanks, and now that we have it, screw the taxpayers." Gettlefinger and the UAW are working hard to ensure that Americans won't feel an ounce of sympathy for them when they finally do lose their jobs and the companies go under.

Bush's Nationalization Plan Continues

This morning President Bush gave the GM and Chrysler the money they were looking for. Regardless of how Americans felt about a bailout, or what the US Senate had made clear, President Bush unilaterally gave TARP funds to these two failing auto manufacturers. $17 billion, to be specific. And the oh-so strict requirements placed on the companies? Come back in three months with a solid plan in place for restructuring; oh, and if you get a chance UAW, consider ending the jobs bank program in place now. Awful. There are no strict requirements placed on these companies or the UAW and basically, the White House circumvented Congress and gave the companies what the US Senate said no to a week ago. This is very frustrating in itself, but add into the fact that part of the provisions in the funding is that the US government can be a stockholder in the companies, effectively nationalizing the domestic auto industry. Fun! Welcome to Socialism 101: first step, nationalize major industries (i.e. banks and auto manufacturers); second step, create a national welfare state by redistributing tax revenues across the board; step three, create an inflated government that touched more aspects of daily life. Now, many said Obama would usher in socialism. Of course people may be right in that aspect, who would have suspected that George Bush would be the first to initialize that process. This is just terrible, and somewhere, guys like Hugo Chavez are laughing hysterically right now.

UAW Insanity

Look at this blog-post by Michelle Malkin. Just click the link in her post and see why the UAW is just awful.

Bailout Crisis, Round Whatever We're in Now UPDATED!

Genius! I just heard the Senate Republicans that are leading the charge against this auto bailout and they are right on the money! Senator Ensign and Senator Shelby simply said that a bailout is a band-aid to the problem without a fix to the problem itself. Throwing $15 billion onto a mound of trash still makes it a mound of trash. And taxpayers ought not be responsible for paying for that trash. Without demanding restructuring, renegotiations with the UAW, or getting rid of these failed CEOs, nothing will change, and even a "car czar" (so awful) will be able to do any good. Fix the problem, auto industry, and then ask for a loan, not the other way around. Oh! And Congressional Democrats.....how about letting Republicans take a look at the language in the bill before saying it's good to go!

UPDATE
Now House Republicans have put forth a plan. It's a much better alternative than some handout. See the summary of the plan here.

UPDATE II
Represenative Dan Lungren of California has got it exactly right.