In the wake of Mitch McConnell’s wholesale rejection of the terms negotiated between the White House and the Democratic leadership for a Detroit automaker bridge loan (which the House passed yesterday), a new "compromise" bill has emerged, put forward by John Boehner (R-OH), Rep. Eric Cantor (R-VA), Rep. Mike Pence (R-IN).

Catch this bloviating (PDF):

The only thing crazier than trusting the same management and union officials who got the  Big Three into this mess to get them out is trusting a bunch of Washington politicians and  bureaucrats – the very same people who ran up a $455 billion deficit last year.
American auto workers and their families deserve better.

There you have it…the GOP is going to save the auto workers from the unions.

They’re demanding benchmarks, including  "the companies’ creditors agree to a framework to reduce each company’s  indebtedness by at least 1/3."

Well that’s genius.  Just as business slows down, creditors of the automakers struggling to keep their own doors open — suppliers — take a huge financial hit.

The UAW holds to concessions already made and further:

  • Concedes the elimination of Supplemental Unemployment Benefits;
  • Concedes elimination of the Jobs Bank Program;
  • Agrees to either reduce company retiree health care obligations or otherwise  convert a portion of such obligations into equity; and
  • Agrees to reduce wages and benefits to the levels paid by non-Big Three manufacturers.

Oh brilliant.  They’ve already eliminated the jobs bank, their wages are already at non-Big Three levels, so what’s left?  Screw the old people and the unemployed, at a time when economists and lawmakers are saying that an extending unemployment benefits is a form of economic stimulus that would do the most good.

But wait, now how much would you pay?

Because of the many legal and contractual hurdles to restructuring, the companies are  urged to accomplish their restructuring through the use of a pre-packaged bankruptcy or another mechanism to bring all stakeholders to the table for an agreed-upon determination of their future.

Destroy the brand, once and for all.  Make sure nobody wants to take the risk of buying an American car, ever again.  

These bloviating GOP assholes are playing Russian roulette with the economy.

Dodd and Corker are evidently in negotiations in the Senate to try and reach a compromise.  But where, one wonders, is Obama in all of this?  It may not be officially his problem, but it is his country.