Comments on: White House, Dems. Discuss Auto Bailout

Agreement Closer On $15B Package; Bush Insists Loans Come From Green Cars Fund

[tennartex]

I note you say "congressional democrats" are pushing for this bail out. What happened to the Republicans?
Or are the same folks that gave away the 700 billion trying to do the same now with the automotive industry? What this country needs is some leadership that has no party label on it except "American".

[grimreap21]

You all need to understand, what we are seeing is the equalizing effect of the "global" economy. This means as the world grows in population (a bad thing) other markets, with lower paid workers, will produce. Our (US) workers will be required to take less wages to produce goods. The levening effect (where their wages come up to ours) will not happen for about 15 years. During that time we will live in an impovershed economy.

[tielkic2]

If you only knew what it was and is like when GM closed 4 plants here in Lansing, Michigan. It sent a huge ripple effect through out this area. The main reason is that when you shut down a plant, it''s not JUST those employees from there that are effected but you also have the supplier, car delieverers, the local stores (without these people the sales are down),home foreclosure, the tax base here is the lowest, our state has had to cut all services to the bone and leave only what is crucital running. So the poor and middle (whats left of it) are getting hit the hardest, our State Police has been cut, towns and cities across the state are having to cut some of their first responds,some school district are having to cut out alot of their extra cirruculms for good.
My family goes to food banks, but they are usaually empty.
It is very hard to find jobs here. I have an Associaties Degree in Business and I am told that I am over qualified to be a cashier or under qualified to be a manager. I have even tried to go outside of my field of expertise, but that is not helping either.
So remember what happened here can happen where you are living also, because this was all brought on by the financial crisis. Who''s jobs are next, yours??
God Bless.

[jfrance5]

First of all, the unions have to go away or go sit in the corner and keep their mouths shut. We can''t give these horribly mismanaged companies money for them to fork over to the unions. I don''t care who you are, you don''t deserve 95% of you actual wage when you retire. These blackmail deals that were forced on these car companies are a major factor in the problem. Until they boot the UAW to the curb this is all fools folly. The banks that have been awarded tax payers money should be forced to give "loans" to the big three. The government could guarantee the loans for them. Do you know that if we took all of the designated funds for the bailout and distributed an equal share to every man, woman and child in America it would come to $150,000.00 per person? Gives you food for thought doesn''t it?

[donbl1]

Right now, the automakers debt is being sold at $.3 on the dollar. For those of you with fixed income mutual funds that is one of the reasons your funds have gone down.

How about the government buying this debt up at $.30 on the dollar and forgiving debt payments for 5 years instead of just giving the money to the automakers. Why? Because the debt the government would own could be used as collateral in case of failure of the auto companies.

The reduction in the debt payments would improve the cash flow at the automakers and allow them to avoid bankruptcy.

[txgrouch2007]

there are come freaks in California
Posted by txgrouch2007 at 07:49 PM : Dec 05, 2008

WHOOPSIE! I meant to type "SOME freaks."

I have NO IDEA what that other thing is... ;-)

[txgrouch2007]

BAILOUTS OR TARIFFS??

Which would be LESS harmful to the economy?

Which one would generate revenue for the government IMMEDIATELY?

Which one would save MORE JOBS, FASTER?

[txgrouch2007]

THE TRICK, OR COURSE, IS MAKING THEM SO THEY
CAN BE PRICED LESS THAN $80,000.00 .....
Posted by cbs3200 at 07:40 PM : Dec 05, 2008

D''YA THINK????

I think they sold the patent for THAT to Chevron, too.

And Chevron isn''t going to give it back cheap.

GM FED US TO THE WOLVES. NOW THEY WANT A BAILOUT.

[txgrouch2007]

HEY MORON - THE "PATENTS" ON THE EV-1 ARE OF LITTLE
VALUE IN TODAY''''S WORLD.
Posted by cbs3200 at 07:40 PM : Dec 05, 2008

GM scrapped its electric/hybrid program in 2003, and it SHREDDED all existing cars.

GM is NOT MAKING ANY electric vehicles right now.

Without restarting the EV-1 program, they would have to GO BACK TO SQUARE 1 and repeat a 10 year development program to catch up to where they were.

Or, they could pay some exorbitant royalty to Chevron to go back to using their old patents and pick up where they left off. Which might take, say TWO YEARS to make up for the five years they''ve been off the case.

Yah, goody goody there are come freaks in California making electric cars. I saw a video of one beating a Porsche in a drag race.

NOT READY FOR MASS PRODUCTION. It''s still a LONG way off for GM to start making them.

[rickwar]

First thing first, before they get our money for bailout all CEO''''s has to fired, investigated and if found guilty whatever they have should be confiscated and then booked their rear ends for decades, then workers has to agree for paycut, they make to much for work they perform, simple.


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Posted by zokin at 07:42 PM : Dec 05, 2008

OK, who do you work for? If you have a CEO is he/she any better?

Please tell us all what you consider a fair wage, fair compensation for a CEO and why should their salaries be adjusted. That''s why they have a board and stockholders.

[rickwar]

This bailout buffet has got to stop, even at the total collapse of these businesses and tangential impact to other sectors in the economy.


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Posted by Credibility2 at 05:17 PM : Dec 05, 2008

Loan--Not Bailout, get your facts straight and stop listening to the talking heads on TV.

Banks--Bailout pure and simple

Go to your bank ask for a loan, might get one ask for a "bailout'' free money, take a hike.

[rickwar]

How can Ford be in better shape then GM? Most of Ford''''s interests are in the USA.




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Posted by electrix47 at 06:38 PM : Dec 05, 2008

Wrong, just like GM Ford is a worldwide company with worldwide intrests, Ford builds in Canada and Mexico just like GM. Get you facts straight.

[wprozak]

yes as far as i am concern , i will never buy another new car or truck from GM again ,since i am paying a price of it ,so workers that are layed-off can sit at home a get 50,000$ a year to sit on a lake and fish or sit at home and play with there wifes, whatever they do ,if they had to do some volunteer work for some charities maybe that would be a little better , or go back to work ,not sit on the job bank for a year or so, than what they get paided for now ,tell me what other job has a job bank to use ,and beside that no line worker is worth 73$ a hour ,sorry maybe i said it the wrong way ,but that is how a number of us feel ,if it would not hurt the country ,with the big 3 going down i would say let them go ,and then some of these 73$ a hour pople will have to go out and work for 10$ or so like other workers ,if they brough back the 60 s and 50 s looks they would sell i lot more to , ,because they look all the same , , jsd330 you are talking about one person , , , there own union workers said that (not me) that is a little to much ,they have just gone to far ,and pushed themselfs or others out of a job ,..when workers take advantage of there employer like that ,just because they could ....they dont deserve to have them bailed over ,but like i said its going to hurt the country ,but the workers should take about 1/2 of what they are making now ,and if they *** ,let them go find a job that will pay them even 1/2 ,so they should be kissing someones behine to have that job now .

[trying8]

Fire, fine and imprison all the execs.


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Posted by TheMajority1 at 07:03 PM : Dec 05, 2008



Then what..... I mean I agree but then what????

[likeitis5050]

According to the CEOs....and Pelosi....bankruptcy is not an option. Why? "Consumers don''t want to buy cars from bankrupted companies." Gee...that didn''t keep consumers from flying. It''s a farce. Congress will not let them fail because to do so would mean union workers currently making $70 an hour would be likely NOT to get the same contract perks and therefore would probably NOT vote the way they vote as a rule...democrat. All this is much to do about nothing...but what NEEDS to happen is exactly bankruptcy and a cleaning of bloated union contracts...management incompetancy and greed...and wiping the slate of pizz poor business policy.

[noloyalisti]

It''s OK to save the company and the workers. Just not the miscreant management. These are right wing wackos through and through. That means they don''t care about anyone but themselves. Certainly not families and workers and consumers.

Fire them all and take them over.

GM''s bailout is a farce. They just want to get rid of the high legacy costs and contracts. Can they say that 100% of the bailout money will be spent in the USA. Don''t bet on it.

GM has screwed me and numerous engineering salaried employees out of our retirement and pensions. After 28 1/2 years I was severanced with no recourse or reason. Why would anyone of our friends, families or others want to support a auto company who treat their employees like this? GM is slowly but surely moving it''s operations out of America.

I feel that this bailout is a way for GM to get out of Contracts with the UAW, salaried employees and retires while it spends the moneys it made in the US on offshore projects. This effort is just to break the unions, plain and simple.

GM has opened plants in India, China, Russia & Mexico. Let them get money to support their mis-management from countries they support. How many GM plants were closed shore? GM has the worst payment history with it''s suppliers.

How can Ford be in better shape then GM? Most of Ford''s interests are in the USA.

[jsd330]

wprozak evidently you and a lot of other people don"t know anything about the UAW job banks. A very good friend of mine is in the job bank. He isn''t fishing or sitting at home playing with his wife. He does volunteer work at a disabled childrens camp and a soup kitchen. My understanding is that you don''t just get paid for sitting around at home. If you don''t volunteer for something you must report to the plant and go to classes all day. And by the way I am retired and have tried to get him to go golfing or fishing, he always tells me he can''t during the week, but I''ll go on the week end. He told me other workers volunteered to clean up a city park, the city said no they were worried about liability and the city workers union was worried about losing their overtime, even though that park hasn''t been cleaned up in over a year.
Everybody believes what rush limbough and the media says, they only tell you what they think that you want to hear and they seem to leave out important facts. All about the bottom line "RATINGS". As the old saying goes engage brain before putting mouth in gear.

[trying8]

You realize of course that it takes roughly 8-12 years to recoupe the cost when you drive a hybrid. Then there are the other issues of the batteries and waste thereof on those cars. Just because it is a hybrid doesnt make it problem free......

[txgrouch2007]

Any bailout for Big Auto must be tied to them making ONLY more fuel efficient HYBRID and ELECTRIC cars, PERIOD!
Posted by Condumbistan at 10:48 AM : Dec 05, 2008

GM sold the key patents for its EV-1 electric car to Chevron.

If GM wants to make electric or hybrid cars now, they will have to PAY ROYALTIES TO AN OIL COMPANY to use the patents they developed themselves.

Do some research on the GM EV-1 electic car (OK, you can use Wikipedia and PRETEND you''re doing research).

GM FED US TO THE WOLVES. NOW THEY WANT A BAILOUT.