government assistance as class warfare
when the financial industry and it’s lords came calling to washington [flying corporate jets], they were met with much handwringing… and left with a blank check for 800 billion dollars.
after the automakers were rebuffed for using the same tactics [and only asking for 24 billion], they did a little soul searching, and came back to washington with a slightly more concrete plan.
that second plan was also rejected, by senate minority members who were deciding to, according to an internal memo leaked to msnbc, ”stand firm and take their first shot against organized labor”
for the auto assistance to be shot down, while the wall st assistance was maintained, is class warfare, plain and simple. no matter what the reasons behind it, to give free money to the blue blooded rich paper pushers while denying aid to the blue collar middle class workers of this country is class warfare– but you don’t even have to read between the lines, its written in black and white on a distributed email amongst our nations representatives. no analysis required- the government decided to use this opportunity to take their ‘first shot’ at all of those 50k a year average middle american citizens.
now, less than a week after our representative congress decided not to help the struggling people of detroit, the white house has ridden in on a white horse to save the day- yipee! but wait, the details are the only important parts of these kinds of plans, so let’s take a quick look at the basics; this is from the AP newswire- quoted sections in green italics:
– Auto makers will get $13.4 billion in short-term financing from the Troubled Asset Relief Program, with an additional $4 billion to be made available in February, contingent on drawing down the second portion of the TARP funds.
so they decided to use some of the wall st. bailout money [thats what the Troubled Asset Relief Program is] to help the poor auto workers … not a bad idea, really. though clearly the automakers aren’t going to turn their businesses around during the traditional 3 hardest car industry months, and ESPECIALLY not in the midst of a financial crisis. so when the automakers have to come back in february to ask for more money, them getting it is contingent on giving the wall st. folk in the Treasury Dept access to an additional 400billion. that doesnt sound like extortion, does it?
– If a company has not become financially viable by March 31, 2009, its loan will be called and all funds returned to Treasury.
as previously stated, we can’t really expect a 3 month car industry turnaround to happen- i hope no one reading this thinks that January and February are going to bring about a crazy car shopping spree… so, when march 31 comes around, and their still not viable, what happens?
– Debts owed to the government would outrank other debts.
oh, then the govt gets to take back the 17.4 billion it loaned them. so… what was the point of this whole exercise? if you were going to just string them along for 4 months before sticking a fork in them, why even bother?
–UAW [United Auto Workers Union] will be asked to accept stock rather than cash for the billions of dollars of pension and retiree health care liabilities being shifted from the companies to the union.
wait. what? so … when the executives sign this loan, it’s going to convert all of the workers pensions and retiree benefits into stock in the company? and then when the companies don’t turn themselves 180 degrees around by march 31st and are forced into bankruptcy by the government calling in their debt … then the workers pensions and retirement benefits will vanish with that bankruptcy? WHAT?!?!
as this proposal becomes solidified, let us all pay close attention, because the destruction of the common man’s wealth in this kind of scale could be devastating, and can lead to the setting of precedents which can affect all of us little people everywhere.