Gilding the non-bailout lilly

Via Michael Moore, who knows a thing or two about Detriot and the auto industry

They could have given the loan on the condition that the automakers start building only cars and mass transit that reduce our dependency on oil.

They could have given the loan on the condition that the automakers build cars that reduce global warming.

They could have given the loan on the condition that the automakers withdraw their many lawsuits against state governments in their attempts to not comply with our environmental laws.

They could have given the loan on the condition that the management team which drove these once-great manufacturers into the ground resign and be replaced with a team who understands the transportation needs of the 21st century.


Yes, they could have given the loan for any of these reasons because, in the end, to lose our manufacturing infrastructure and throw 3 million people out of work would be a catastrophe.

But instead, the Senate said, we'll give you the loan only if the factory workers take a $20 an hour cut in wages, pension and health care. That's right. After giving BILLIONS to Wall Street hucksters and criminal investment bankers -- billions with no strings attached and, as we have since learned, no oversight whatsoever -- the Senate decided it is more important to break a union, more important to throw middle class wage earners into the ranks of the working poor than to prevent the total collapse of industrial America.

cjallen over at dKos knocks it out of the park:

They voted against millions of jobs for Americans at a time when we desperately need them. They voted in favor of you having to move out of your house because you'll no longer be able to afford it. They voted for you selling one of your cars so you can pay the bills. They voted for you freezing over the winter because you'll not be able to afford to heat your home. They voted for you eating ramen noodles because you'll not have the money for real meals. They voted for our recession turning into a depression. They voted for at least another year of dropping stock markets. They voted for a reduction in your retirement savings of another 50%.

They voted to kill millions of jobs. They voted to kill the American economy. Why? So that foreign automakers who have plants in their states can compete better. Foreign automakers who pay their American employees less than the American automakers. They voted against it so that foreign companies could make more money by paying Americans less.

Bingo.