| Rolfe McCollister of the Business Report has a fundamental misunderstanding of the Auto Bailout that the Senate Republicans blocked the other day. Let's take a look at his inaccuracies:
No bailout for Big Three
It's a waste of time and money-and simply a Democratic "payback" to the auto unions. But what is President Bush's excuse? He's lost his mind-and the support of conservatives. The Detroit model is broken. The Big Three will just be back again for more, and eventually they will collapse.
In 2007, Toyota reportedly sold 9.366 million units worldwide. GM announced it sold 9.369 million vehicles around the world last year, making the Detroit company the world's best-selling automaker for the 77th consecutive year. So, why will GM go broke by the end of the month without a bailout, while Toyota is on sound financial ground? They are broken and built to fail-and will. [The Big Three remind me of another dinosaur, the public school system, also run-and ruined-by the unions. Notice something similar here? Focus on the customer and the outcomes ... and respond or else.]
Other automakers have changed and are doing just fine. Learn from their success, and save our taxpayer dollars. Enough with the bailouts!
Pray tell, how is the bailout a payback to the UAW, Mr. McCollister? The auto workers, sir, have taken pay cuts over the last two contracts, while the executives of these companies have not seen any cuts in anything at all. They are still getting their perks, like flying in corporate jets to Washington with their hands out, and excessive bonuses over the past 30 years for performance that was, well, not so good.
One of the reasons that the American manufacturing base is "broken and built to fail" has absolutely nothing to do with the unions. The unions made the American manufacturer what the envy of the world. It has EVERYTHING to do with the fact that their overseas competitors don't have the huge costs of pensions and health care to deal with, since those countries have taken on those costs and pay for them with higher individual tax rates.
Why is that Mr. McCollister? Is it because folks of your ilk have used class warfare for the past 30 years to ensure that their workers' wages didn't keep pace with inflation while going hat in hand to Washington and the Louisiana Legislature complaining that business was being hurt by "high taxes?"
By the way, wouldn't having universal health care solve one of the major problems facing the Big 3 right now? They would no longer be responsible for ensuring that their workers had health care, and could save the billions they already spend each year on health care benefits for their workers and push it into Research and Development, and, hopefully, into paying their workers, not their management, more.
Where do you stand on universal health care, Mr. McCollister? My guess, sir is that you would be opposed to universal health care simply because the unions support it! That's right, sir, you're so predictable ... if the unions are for it, you're against it. |
