Ford Motor Company wants another bailout. Only they don't want the government to give them money. They want YOU to give the government money.
Ford CEO Alan Mulally is asking Washington to raise the federal gas tax to make the price per gallon $4 AT THE LOWEST, according to the Wall Street Journal. Ford, you see, has a boatload of these crappy little green cars that it can't unload at any price, largely because the price of gas has fallen about 150 percent since last summer and people are back to buying SUVs and mid-size cars.
This tax increase idea already has been floated on Capitol Hill by a number of libs looking for all the ways they can to pay for their pork. So don't be surprised if by June, we're not well on our way to being right back where we were last summer.
So air up those tires and get a tuneup, eh.
(If you don't recognize the tire/tuneup line, you're probably not alone. That's what Obama said we should all do last summer when gas eclipsed $4. The media, naturally, didn't hold him in anything resembling contempt for saying, essentially, tough sh*t America.)
*****
From Politico:
The eye-popping national debt surpassed $11 trillion Monday, the largest in U.S. history.
The new Treasury Department figures on the national debt were released as the non-partisan Congressional Budget Office is expected to project that the annual budget deficit will be higher than previously estimated by the White House's Office of Management and Budget. The debt, which refers to the cumulative amount of money the government owes, hit $10.9 trillion on Friday.
The whopping number has major ramifications for President Barack Obama, who is trying to push through a raft of big-ticket bills on health care, energy, education and climate change — while also attempting to stabilize the swooning economy.
Sen. Kent Conrad (D-N.D.), chairman of the Budget Committee, said Tuesday that the numbers could force Congress to make "adjustments" to Obama's $3.6 trillion budget plan.
Count on making some adjustments yourself. When all this hits the fan down the road, you, Jack & Jill taxpayer, will bend over to a degree you've never ever imagined.
*****
While everyone's roasting AIG execs, wonder if anyone will ask whether Barack Obama plans to return the $101,332 bonus last year from AIG in the form of political contributions? (according to Opensecrets.org. and reported Tuesday by CNN)
Just like the Fannie Mae/Freddie Mac political contribution list, the biggest recipients from AIG were Senate banking chairman Chris Dodd (a Democrat, if you're wondering) and Barack Obama.
*****
Say what you will about George W. Bush's politics, but unlike his opponents, Bush puts the country first. He showed that during his eight years in office, and he's showing that now:
CALGARY, Alberta (AP) - Former President George W. Bush says he won't criticize President Barack Obama because Obama "deserves my silence," and says he plans to write a book about the 12 toughest decisions he made in office. Bush's speech Tuesday at a luncheon in Calgary, Alberta was his first since leaving office.
He declined to comment about the Obama administration like former Vice President Dick Cheney. Cheney said Sunday that Obama's decisions are threatening the nation's safety.
Bush says he doesn't know what he'll do in the long term but says he'll write a book that will let people determine what they would have done if their most important job was to protect the country.
If this were Bill Clinton or Jimmy Carter, concerned first and foremost with their living legacies, they'd be in front of microphones every day getting in their digs on the current administration ... as the Clintons and Gore and Carter did to Bush every chance they got starting in January of 2001.
Not only has Bush NOT been visible, he refrains from taking shots when given the chance. Lord knows he easily could when what has happened in Washington the last two months is the antithesis of everything he believes in.
(Imported from March 18, 2009)
Showing posts with label auto industry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label auto industry. Show all posts
Tuesday, July 7, 2009
Four-dollar gas
Seven months ago, when gasoline rocketed up past $4 per gallon, we were treated to vitriol from Liberals and the mainstream media (yes, redundant, I know) about the "Greedy Oil Companies" and how much the price of oil was adversely affecting our everyday lives.
Very shortly, we'll be headed back in that direction. And as a precursor, we're now seeing and hearing how $1.50 gas is adversely affecting the economy.
You see, the Libs are suggesting, we really need $4 per gallon gas. It's for the Good Of The Country! As vice president-elect Joe Biden would say, "it's time to chip in ... time to do your part ... time to be patriotic."
This time, however, it won't be the price of oil that will send those gas pump wheels spinning up past $50 each time you fill your tank.
This time, and every time going forward, it will be the federal tax you pay for each gallon.
Here's how it's going to happen:
The Big Three automakers, as most know, have been struggling ... largely because their union workers need wages and benefits at a scale far beyond what most Americans manage to live on. As more and more of us put our feet down last month and demanded NO BAILOUT, the union capitulated and said it, along with the companies, would do its part to help the failing businesses.
Of course, faster than Hamas can break a cease-fire agreement and revert to its terrorist ways, the union reversed itself and said it would make NO concessions the minute the bailout checks were written.
So the quandary in Detroit continues. The automakers now say (surprise, surprise!) those however many billions simply will not help enough. It seems that since we will never make a substantive move toward energy independence under Liberal rule, The Big Three doesn't know what kind of cars to make.
Voila! The government to the rescue!
The Libs are telling the automakers to move forward with their line of little green cars. In exchange for doing so, Washington will open the financial spigots. Of course, seeing how we're already $85 kajillion in debt from all this bailout nonsense (and much more to come), the government has to find a source for all those billions of dollars that will be flowing to Ford, GM and Chrysler.
Are you catching on here?
Yes, dear taxpayer, "it's time for you to do your part ... time to chip in ... time to be patriotic."
The idea, hatched in Liberal back rooms of Congress and without an iota of debate, is fixing the price of gas. Right now, the idea is $3.50. No matter the price of oil, the price of gas will be $3.50. That means if prices remain as they are now, $1.50, that extra $2 will go to Detroit via Washington.
Of course, as the price of oil rises again, the flow of money to Detroit will weaken, and it shouldn't be long after that that Washington decides $3.50 just isn't cutting it.
But wait! The Libs will sell this turd by introducing all kinds of savings to Jack and Jill American. Expect the promise of tax credits if you buy one of these little green cars.
"Yes! If you buy one of these little green cars, your benevolent government will give you a $2,500 tax credit!"
Yippee!
I can't wait to go spend $8,000 or so more for a car that runs on bird pee (and performs LIKE it runs on bird pee) and, at the end of the year, write off $2,500 that will result in my taxes being lowered $500 or so.
Of course, my taxes will already be higher, anyway. Oh yes. In case you missed it, those tax DECREASES that were pledged several months ago?
Well, the economy ... tough times ... "trillion-dollar deficits as far as the eye can see," as The Messiah recently asserted ... you know. Can't really go forward with that now, can we?
Welcome to CHANGE, America.
(Imported from Jan. 17, 2009)
Very shortly, we'll be headed back in that direction. And as a precursor, we're now seeing and hearing how $1.50 gas is adversely affecting the economy.
You see, the Libs are suggesting, we really need $4 per gallon gas. It's for the Good Of The Country! As vice president-elect Joe Biden would say, "it's time to chip in ... time to do your part ... time to be patriotic."
This time, however, it won't be the price of oil that will send those gas pump wheels spinning up past $50 each time you fill your tank.
This time, and every time going forward, it will be the federal tax you pay for each gallon.
Here's how it's going to happen:
The Big Three automakers, as most know, have been struggling ... largely because their union workers need wages and benefits at a scale far beyond what most Americans manage to live on. As more and more of us put our feet down last month and demanded NO BAILOUT, the union capitulated and said it, along with the companies, would do its part to help the failing businesses.
Of course, faster than Hamas can break a cease-fire agreement and revert to its terrorist ways, the union reversed itself and said it would make NO concessions the minute the bailout checks were written.
So the quandary in Detroit continues. The automakers now say (surprise, surprise!) those however many billions simply will not help enough. It seems that since we will never make a substantive move toward energy independence under Liberal rule, The Big Three doesn't know what kind of cars to make.
Voila! The government to the rescue!
The Libs are telling the automakers to move forward with their line of little green cars. In exchange for doing so, Washington will open the financial spigots. Of course, seeing how we're already $85 kajillion in debt from all this bailout nonsense (and much more to come), the government has to find a source for all those billions of dollars that will be flowing to Ford, GM and Chrysler.
Are you catching on here?
Yes, dear taxpayer, "it's time for you to do your part ... time to chip in ... time to be patriotic."
The idea, hatched in Liberal back rooms of Congress and without an iota of debate, is fixing the price of gas. Right now, the idea is $3.50. No matter the price of oil, the price of gas will be $3.50. That means if prices remain as they are now, $1.50, that extra $2 will go to Detroit via Washington.
Of course, as the price of oil rises again, the flow of money to Detroit will weaken, and it shouldn't be long after that that Washington decides $3.50 just isn't cutting it.
But wait! The Libs will sell this turd by introducing all kinds of savings to Jack and Jill American. Expect the promise of tax credits if you buy one of these little green cars.
"Yes! If you buy one of these little green cars, your benevolent government will give you a $2,500 tax credit!"
Yippee!
I can't wait to go spend $8,000 or so more for a car that runs on bird pee (and performs LIKE it runs on bird pee) and, at the end of the year, write off $2,500 that will result in my taxes being lowered $500 or so.
Of course, my taxes will already be higher, anyway. Oh yes. In case you missed it, those tax DECREASES that were pledged several months ago?
Well, the economy ... tough times ... "trillion-dollar deficits as far as the eye can see," as The Messiah recently asserted ... you know. Can't really go forward with that now, can we?
Welcome to CHANGE, America.
(Imported from Jan. 17, 2009)
Not just no, but hell no
"The nine most terrifying words in the English language are, 'I'm from the government and I'm here to help.'" -- Ronald Reagan
Well, the government is "here to help" once again. This time, the government wants to "help" the Big Three, a.k.a. Ford, Chrysler and GM, to the tune of $25 billion.
Why not? The spigot, after all, was turned all the way on when we (that's you and me, dear taxpayer) heaped a $700 billion free-for-all onto the banking and credit industry and, thanks to Congress, placed responsibility for spending that money onto one person. One government person. Without so much as a single eye of oversight, too.
Oh, Libs like Barney Frank now are screaming bloody murder, saying they had NO IDEA what they had signed on for. If memory serves, these same Libs said the same thing about the authorization they granted the President back in 2002 to take action against Iraq -- not once, but TWICE!
I don't know how any of you feel, but isn't it time our elected officials start making the effort to actually read and understand something before passing it into law? I realize that would cut into the time they need to glob millions in earmarks onto everything they pass, but the "I had no idea!" excuse is wearing kinda thin.
What has the Libs posturing (and certain Republicans who opposed the bailout from Day 1, such as Jeff Sessions, saying "I told you so") is that instead of using that money to buy "distressed loans" from these banking institutions and, ultimately, saving Joe Citizen from foreclosure, the government instead has used it to buy equity in the banking industry.
That's right. Your federal government, instead of helping struggling homeowners by purchasing all those bad loans as was promised, instead now owns an even bigger chunk of what used to be a private entity.
That alone is Reason One that Republicans and the President are right to say "No way in hell" to this proposed $25 billion "bailout" of the auto industry.
As I've been saying since the first day I put fingers to keyboard in this little window, the government has NO BUSINESS meddling in our business. Not only does it not have the business doing so, it lacks the capability. Period. End of story.
But Reason Two for shooting down this particular Christmas present is that it would represent just that to the unions Democrats are so beholden to. That's right. Libs love to bash Big Business. Except, that is, when a particular Big Business is run by the UAW. (Or, in the case of Big Universities, liberal brainwashing is practiced.)
For one thing, GM made such hideous investments with money set aside for pensions in the 1980s that since the late 1990s, it's been losing more than $1 billion PER MONTH. And given Wall Street's recent meltdown, there's no telling how high those losses have climbed.
So what's $25 billion going to do? Sustain them for another year or so?
Further, when I read about the economy's hit to the auto industry, I don't read that sales are only down at Ford, Chrysler and GM. They're down industry-wide. So why isn't the U.S. division of Toyota crying for a bailout?
Well, for one thing, figures from 2006 show the average Big Three union worker made in excess of $70 per hour in wages and benefits. By comparison, non-union workers at Toyota here in the U.S. made an average of $47 per hour in wages and benefits.
Bottom line here is that there's no chance the union is going to accept wage freezes, let alone wage cuts. The UAW, as it has done in mutiple auto industry offshoots, has shown a perfect willingness to let struggling businesses go under and employees join the ranks of the unemployed than accept any kind of cut.
Democrats, naturally, are all for giving unions what they want, which is why they're pushing so hard for this bailout.
You tell me (and seriously, TELL ME!). Those of you making making around $20 or $30 per hour ... should YOUR tax dollars go to bail out a company and save workers who are making in excess of $70 per hour?
I'm no math wizard, but we're told there are 3 million auto workers in Michigan alone who could be out of work unless WE SAVE THEM.
Well, let's say those 3 million take a $10 cut in their wage/benefit hourly rate. (They'd still be making more than twice the average American worker.) That comes to $30 million PER HOUR in savings.
It would take 1000 hours to reach $30 billion. That's 25 work weeks.
I seem to remember Joe Biden recently saying "It's time to be patriotic ... time to jump in, time to be part of the deal, time to help get America out of the rut."
I say tell that to Ford, Chrysler and GM ... and most of all, the UAW.
I say hell no to any more bailouts, ESPECIALLY this one.
(Imported from Nov. 20, 2008)
Well, the government is "here to help" once again. This time, the government wants to "help" the Big Three, a.k.a. Ford, Chrysler and GM, to the tune of $25 billion.
Why not? The spigot, after all, was turned all the way on when we (that's you and me, dear taxpayer) heaped a $700 billion free-for-all onto the banking and credit industry and, thanks to Congress, placed responsibility for spending that money onto one person. One government person. Without so much as a single eye of oversight, too.
Oh, Libs like Barney Frank now are screaming bloody murder, saying they had NO IDEA what they had signed on for. If memory serves, these same Libs said the same thing about the authorization they granted the President back in 2002 to take action against Iraq -- not once, but TWICE!
I don't know how any of you feel, but isn't it time our elected officials start making the effort to actually read and understand something before passing it into law? I realize that would cut into the time they need to glob millions in earmarks onto everything they pass, but the "I had no idea!" excuse is wearing kinda thin.
What has the Libs posturing (and certain Republicans who opposed the bailout from Day 1, such as Jeff Sessions, saying "I told you so") is that instead of using that money to buy "distressed loans" from these banking institutions and, ultimately, saving Joe Citizen from foreclosure, the government instead has used it to buy equity in the banking industry.
That's right. Your federal government, instead of helping struggling homeowners by purchasing all those bad loans as was promised, instead now owns an even bigger chunk of what used to be a private entity.
That alone is Reason One that Republicans and the President are right to say "No way in hell" to this proposed $25 billion "bailout" of the auto industry.
As I've been saying since the first day I put fingers to keyboard in this little window, the government has NO BUSINESS meddling in our business. Not only does it not have the business doing so, it lacks the capability. Period. End of story.
But Reason Two for shooting down this particular Christmas present is that it would represent just that to the unions Democrats are so beholden to. That's right. Libs love to bash Big Business. Except, that is, when a particular Big Business is run by the UAW. (Or, in the case of Big Universities, liberal brainwashing is practiced.)
For one thing, GM made such hideous investments with money set aside for pensions in the 1980s that since the late 1990s, it's been losing more than $1 billion PER MONTH. And given Wall Street's recent meltdown, there's no telling how high those losses have climbed.
So what's $25 billion going to do? Sustain them for another year or so?
Further, when I read about the economy's hit to the auto industry, I don't read that sales are only down at Ford, Chrysler and GM. They're down industry-wide. So why isn't the U.S. division of Toyota crying for a bailout?
Well, for one thing, figures from 2006 show the average Big Three union worker made in excess of $70 per hour in wages and benefits. By comparison, non-union workers at Toyota here in the U.S. made an average of $47 per hour in wages and benefits.
Bottom line here is that there's no chance the union is going to accept wage freezes, let alone wage cuts. The UAW, as it has done in mutiple auto industry offshoots, has shown a perfect willingness to let struggling businesses go under and employees join the ranks of the unemployed than accept any kind of cut.
Democrats, naturally, are all for giving unions what they want, which is why they're pushing so hard for this bailout.
You tell me (and seriously, TELL ME!). Those of you making making around $20 or $30 per hour ... should YOUR tax dollars go to bail out a company and save workers who are making in excess of $70 per hour?
I'm no math wizard, but we're told there are 3 million auto workers in Michigan alone who could be out of work unless WE SAVE THEM.
Well, let's say those 3 million take a $10 cut in their wage/benefit hourly rate. (They'd still be making more than twice the average American worker.) That comes to $30 million PER HOUR in savings.
It would take 1000 hours to reach $30 billion. That's 25 work weeks.
I seem to remember Joe Biden recently saying "It's time to be patriotic ... time to jump in, time to be part of the deal, time to help get America out of the rut."
I say tell that to Ford, Chrysler and GM ... and most of all, the UAW.
I say hell no to any more bailouts, ESPECIALLY this one.
(Imported from Nov. 20, 2008)
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