The American Spectator : The Spectacle Blog : Not His Job

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President Obama said yesterday that he will offer GM and Chrysler taxpayer-funded aid, which he said will be unveiled in a couple of days. The Washington Post reported that he has discovered some newfound responsibilities in his job description:

"I know that it is not popular to provide help to autoworkers -- or to auto companies -- but my job is to measure the costs of allowing these auto companies just to collapse," he said.

As my colleague Roy Cordato said recently, I wish he'd go back to his other responsibilities like basketball predictions.

topics:
Barack Obama

View all comments (4) | Leave a comment

ncatty| 3.27.09 @ 5:34PM

I could not understand why the administration was not letting these firms file a Chapter 11 petition in bankruptcy rather than bailout after bailout. Under Chapter 11, contracts can be renegotiated and the business reorganized, and its constitutional! (Article 1, Section 8) Then I realized the administration wants to control these firms, not see them reorganized in a constitutional way.

MAS1916| 3.28.09 @ 2:28PM

Chapter 11 is the only way for these companies to survive. They need to significantly renegotiate their UAW contracts. Without that, any product they produce will be significantly overpriced and won't sell. Taxpayers will then be asked to throw more and more money at GM and Chrysler to keep them afloat.

Obama will do this as long as possible to pay back the UAW. Taxpayers (and their children, grandchildren, etc.,) will just get the bill.

Lori| 3.29.09 @ 2:17AM

Obama uses totally flawed logic which is to say no logic at all. He supposes that helping the auto companies will save them from collapse. Or not helping them will mean their sure collapse. Neither of these are logical. The first has been done, giving billions of dollars of help and it hasn't helped. The alternative, not helping, would not mean their sure collapse because the companies would be forced to restructure themselves; something they can better do without government interference. Obama thinks he alone can save them. The guy thinks too highly of himself.

Bob| 3.29.09 @ 12:48PM

Chapter 11 will cause Chrysler to go under and GM to become significantly smaller. It will also cause several parts suppliers to go under. It will cause job losses to increase substantially, especially in areas already hit hard. This comes at a time when foreign auto manufacturers will not build any more plants here due to rising health care costs.

That said, GM's big problem is their dealer contracts and state franchise laws. They have twice as many dealers as they need to be competitive and still too many brands for their size. The only way to fix this is Chapter 11. Therefore, we should not bail out the auto companies but expect the severe pain -- over several years -- that will result. If we don't allow that to occur, we are only delaying the problem, not solving it. I don't think most Republicans understand the effect of this on our manufacturing sector, and I wish there were a way to invalidate all of the contracts and state franchise laws without going into bankruptcy -- but there isn't.