GOP to Detroit: Drop Dead
Lots and lots of chatter about the failure of the auto bailout in the Senate yesterday. Michael Landauer, in The Dallas Morning News Opinion blog, blames the unions. "Thanks, UAW, for today's stock market" he titles his blog post. He continues to pedal the story that the UAW refuses to compromise and accept lower wages and benefits. According to calculations by Time, next year workers at Ford plants will earn an average of $53 an hour with benefits, close to the $49 an hour that workers at foreign-owned car manufacturers in the US average and far below the old UAW wage of $71 with benefits. Reportedly, the UAW agreed to reach parity in the next union contract in 2011. The GOP wants cuts immediately. Expect Landauer and the union-busters to continue to push the line that the union is the obstinate barrier to the success of the US car makers.
Wayne Slater, in The Dallas Morning News Trailblazers blog, shows us the politics behind the union-busting strategy. He tells us that Gov. Rick Perry of Texas says the collapse of the US automakers will be good news for Texas and other right-to-work states. He refuses to compromise until those "onerous union contracts" are broken. He also is keeping a close eye on Sen. Kay Bailey Hutchison, who is expected to challenge him for the governorship in 2010. He has already criticized her for voting for the $700 billion Wall Street bailout. He would like nothing more than to hang her for saving Detroit, too.
Back on the Opinion blog, Jim Mitchell points out another drama unfolding at GMAC, the financing arm of GM. Unless GMAC can restructure its debt, it might default, taking down much of GM's car dealer network even if GM itself limps along. Reader Chuck Bloom points out something most hardliners ignore as they cheer for the Big Three automakers to fall into bankruptcy. Because of the banking crisis, there is likely no "bank/lending institution to serve as a guarantor of debts in Chapter 11 for General Motors. Without it, reorganization cannot happen. Then it's Chapter 7 - liquidation and bye, bye hundreds of thousands of jobs." It's been reported that no less than Vice President Dick Cheney, no union-loving liberal socialist, told Senate Republicans behind closed doors that unless there's a bailout of the auto industry, it's "Herbert Hoover time." The GOP Senators apparently did not see that as something to be avoided.
President Bush did his best to drive a hard bargain with Democrats in Congress, but he failed to bring Republicans on board. But Bush realizes that failure is not an option. An uncontrolled bankruptcy of the auto industry while the economy is as weak as now would be disastrous for the national interest. Ironically, screwing Detroit won't do Republicans any good politically, either. It further shrinks their already dwindling base. Writing off Michigan and Ohio in order to rally the right-to-work Southerners might help Rick Perry keep his governor's job in Texas, but it's no way for the party to regain power nationally.
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