Comments on: Why Detroit — Like New York — Shouldn’t Be Allowed To Go Bankrupt

By: MarkH

MarkH — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 00:57:55 +0000

Yes, I suggested this last night. Make them filibuster straight through Christmas. Unfortunately, this would take stones, something Reid has never seen and has certainly never possessed.

I hope you’re NOT suggesting somebody send him some ’pet rocks’ for Christmas.

By: MarkH

MarkH — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 00:50:46 +0000

This quote from Mitch McConnell from an AP story (via MSNBC), is, I’m sure, said with absolutely no irony:

And McConnell says the government shouldn’t intervene in some industries and not others.

Two people, one hurt one not: do you ”intervene” to help the hurt one or insist the government ”let the market work”?

By: MarkH

MarkH — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 00:47:44 +0000

I hope that Democratic leadership makes them filibuster. Then we can all watch as the stock market careens in the wake of their fiscal stupidity and insufferable bloviating, and see where the true suicidal wankery lies.

The dems are too cowardly to make them do this. Reid will just pull the legislation.

At this point in the Bush administration and this near the end of the Senate term I see no reason to NOT push and push and let the Republicans filibuster their hearts out. Every moment they’re on the floor calling for the end of the American economy and for throwing people out of their jobs & homes is as good as political gold for Dems. Not that that’s a reason to do this.

No, it’s more important to simply push the legislation because it’s the right thing for America. Dems took the chance and passed the $700B bailout despite the ickiness of having to deal with Bush and we need to do the auto bailout despite having to deal with GM and Cerberus. It’s the medicine that is good for us.

I must say however, the idea of someone like Steven Jobs as CEO of GM is appealing. Read that on another blog and it’s inspiring.

By: MarkH

MarkH — Fri, 12 Dec 2008 00:36:11 +0000

First, why do I keep getting the blog discussion erased and replaced by some kind of video ad? It ruins the lake effect.

By: grumpyspaniel

grumpyspaniel — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 20:32:33 +0000

Several people have noted the generous packages of tax breaks, free land, state-paid worker training, and other incentives Alabama, South Carolina, Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi, and Texas gave the foreign automakers. Most recently, Tennessee gave Volkswagen an incentive package worth, as I recall, about $600-million to locate an assembly plant in Chattanooga (Corker’s hometown, incidentally). Now, these incentive packages aren’t limited to the auto industry, and one could argue they’re okay if used to attract new investment. But incentive packages are also used to entice companies to close down existing plants and move jobs; for example, a few years ago, the Swedish-owned appliance manufacturer, Electrolux, closed its profitableunionized plant in Greenville, Mich., a small town in the western part of the state, and moved the jobs to Right-to-Work (for less) South Carolina. It’s an all-too-common story.

Back in the early 1990s, then UAW President Owen Bieber called this practice of states bidding against each other for new or existing plants “economic cannibalism.” Realizing that no state would unilaterally disarm, Bieber called for national legislation banning this practice; instead, states would compete for new business investment on the basis of quality public schools and universities, skilled workers, sound infrastructure, quality of life, and so forth. Seems to me this is an idea worth bringing back.

By: grumpyspaniel

grumpyspaniel — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 20:05:34 +0000

Actually, the most recent polls on auto bailout – NBC/Wall Street Journal and L.A. Times/Bloomberg News – show plurality (about 46% in NBC/WSJ) favoring government aid to Detroit 3. True, not a majority – but better than the 61% oppose in CNN Poll a couple weeks ago.

By: richardCA

richardCA — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 19:35:13 +0000

It will be like Lehman Brothers where before they were left to hang out to dry by Paulson, et al, they said they knew before hand what the repercussions of letting them fail would be. NOT.

How many times does history have to repeat itself?

By: MaryCh

MaryCh — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 19:08:04 +0000

Meet the new math, same as the old math…

By: selise

selise — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 18:59:52 +0000

speaking of not making he case… are you listening to levin? is he trying to make sure the bill doesn’t pass? hopeless.

By: gbsavatar

gbsavatar — Thu, 11 Dec 2008 18:59:18 +0000

There are several tens of millions of other people who can’t understand why everyone else is “too big to fail.” We are now witnessing the continuation of the corrupt single party system as now fronted by the Democrats.

Too big to fail = corruption squared