Bailout Watch 238: Obama: "A Plan Would Be Nice"

by Edward Niedermeyer

November 23rd, 2008 6:28 PM

bailout watch 238 obama a plan would be nice

Barack Obama’s turd blossom David Axelrod appeared on ABC’s “This Week” today (via Reuters), quietly backing the president-elect away from is electorally-necessary support for an automaker giveaway. “We all have a stake in the survival and the prosperity of the auto industry,” said the future senior White House adviser. “But in order to do that, they’re going to have to retool and rationalize their industry for the future,” he said. “If they don’t do that, then there’s very little that taxpayers can do to help them.” This puts Obama back on the same page as the congressional Democrats, who have been markedly less supportive of a bailout since the Detroit CEO’s miserable performance before the House Financial Services Committee this week. “There must be a business model that they work off of,” Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi tells CBS’ “Face the Nation. “No one would invest in a company without seeing that, nor should taxpayer dollars be invested without seeing that business model and that business plan.” The real question then seems to be, what do Obama, Pelosi, et al expect to see in the way of a new plan come December 2? Because other than being sure that they want to see a plan, we haven’t got much from them in the way of specifics.

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Racebeer on Nov 24, 2008

Phil - you are oh so correct here. Now that CitiGroup has gotten their 300 billion "pounds of flesh", it shows just how much of a charade the whole congressional hearing fiacso really was/is. $300 billion without raking anyone over the coals, yet the D3 CEO's are reamed for two days with no outcome. The Washington circus continues unabated ..... Business as usual - just move along .......

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GM Retiree on Nov 24, 2008

Let us consider America's unionized workers and the struggling powerless retirees who were given broken promises and betrayed by corporations, Washington, media and todays befuddled union officials? http://westfallmike.tripod.com/Page11.htm http://westfallmike.tripod.com/Page12.htm http://westfallmike.tripod.com/Page10.htm http://westfallmike.tripod.com/Page14.htm http://unionreview.com/insights-analysis-uaw-betrays-autoworkers http://www.umflint.edu/library/archives/westfall.htm http://www.monroelabor.org/links.html http://michaelwestfall.tripod.com/id50.html

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Geeber on Nov 24, 2008
Stein X Leikanger: I’m sure that the Dem’s have their own part in the misery that is Detroit, but it was with strong GOP support that the brilliant auto managers were able to keep building their luxo-barges and stradatanks, while resisting fuel efficiency standards. The problem wasn't that the domestics built big SUVs and pickups. Toyota spent a lot of money to get into the big pickup market (just in time for it to implode) and has always offered large SUVs. Same with Nissan. BMW and Mercedes have been happy to sell large, gas-gulping SUVs. And I don't recall any increased devotion to small cars on Chrysler's part when Daimler was running the company (right into the ground, as it turned out). It was Detroit's decision to treat small cars as the red-headed stepchildren. That's not Washington's fault. And government regulations can't mandate the development and production of GOOD small cars. The Cobalt and Aveo prove that one every day.... Stein X Leikanger: As to Jeff’s question: where’s the actual president? He is in Peru drinking alcohol, if that makes you feel any better: Actually, it does. After the hearings and the performance by the UAW and Rick Wagoner, the last thing I want is any of my money going to bail out GM, Chrysler and the UAW. They - not the government - have lots of work to do if they want to earn any sort of bailout.

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Boondox on Nov 24, 2008

Here's my problem...why didn't they already have one locked and loaded? All 3 companies have known for months that they are in dire need of money. Why didn't they use some of the time since the global financial crisis derailed their companies (which is total crap anyway) to put togther several plans on how to get out of it. They shouldn't need until Dec 2nd, they should have last Friday. That they didn't says all we need to know.

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