Automaker Bailout Passes House

But Senate Republicans Have Vowed To Block The Measure; Senate Vote Could Come Thursday

(CBS/AP)  A $14 billion rescue package for the nation's imperiled auto industry sped to approval in the U.S. House Wednesday night, but the emergency bailout was still in jeopardy from Republicans who were setting out roadblocks in the Senate.

Democrats and the Bush White House hoped for a Senate vote as early as Thursday and enactment by week's end. They argued that the loans authorized by the measure were needed to stave off disaster for the auto industry - and a crushing further blow to the reeling national economy.

The legislation, approved 237-170 by the House, would provide money within days to cash-starved General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC. Ford Motor Co., which has said it has enough to stay afloat, would also be eligible for federal aid.

Republicans were preparing a strong fight against the aid plan in the Senate, not only taking on the Democrats but standing in open revolt against their party's lame-duck president on the measure.

The Republicans want to force the companies into bankruptcy or mandate hefty concessions from autoworkers and creditors as a condition of any federal aid. They also oppose an environmental mandate that House Democrats insisted on including in the measure.

The White House, though not formally endorsing an agreement with congressional Democrats, dispatched administration officials to Capitol Hill to make a case for the rescue package. During a contentious, closed-door luncheon with Senate Republicans, they got an earful of criticism from the rank-and-file, some of whom have already announced plans to block the measure.

"They got a good dose," said opponent Tom Coburn, R-Okla., as he emerged from the session.

Even auto state Republicans who have pushed hard for a bailout said the measure needed work. Sen. Kit Bond, R-Mo., said he wanted to see changes. And Sen. George V. Voinovich, R-Ohio, said the measure didn't have the necessary Republican votes to pass Congress.

The plan would create a government "car czar," to be named by President George W. Bush to dole out the loans, with the power to force the carmakers into bankruptcy next spring if they didn't cut quick deals with labor unions, creditors and others to restructure their businesses and become viable.

Detroit desperately needs an overnight sensation - but the industry, which must sell 15 million autos a year to be profitable, is on pace to sell only 11 million, reports CBS News correspondent Anthony Mason.

Auto analyst Kevin Tynan says the plans the automakers put on the table are not enough to return them to long-term profitability and viability.

"They've done a lot of work in the product portfolio. But still more needs to be done. And it needs to be accelerated," Tynan told Mason.

Congressional Republicans, left out of negotiations on the package, blasted it. Their opposition reflected the tricky task of enacting yet another federal rescue in a bailout-weary Congress, with Bush's influence on the wane.

"People realize that this bill is an incredibly weak bill, (and) is the product of an administration that wants to kick the can down the road and let somebody else deal with it," said Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn. "I think it has minimal - very little support in our caucus."

The scene so far has been somewhat reminiscent of the tense atmosphere of early October on Capitol Hill, when lawmakers argued, cajoled, threatened and lobbied one another, ultimately passing a $700 billion bailout plan that Bush signed into law for Wall Street financial firms.

With Republicans balking and many senators absent from the emergency, postelection debate, mustering the 60 votes needed to advance the measure in the Senate was proving tricky.

Opponents in the Senate say taxpayer money should not be spent up front before the industry is forced to make changes, reports CBS News correspondent Bob Orr.

"Isn't that putting the cart before the horse? Isn't that, to use a common phrase, just ass-backwards?' said Se. David Vitter, R-La.

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Read text of the auto industry bailout bill

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Sen. Mitch McConnell, the GOP leader, said Wednesday afternoon that his side had only recently gotten a copy of the measure. He said, "Everybody is still kind of poring through it, trying to figure out exactly what it does. But everybody understands the significance of the issue and the enormity of the problem."

Opposition wasn't limited to Republicans.

Democratic Sen. Max Baucus of Montana announced he was against the measure because of a provision to bail out transit agencies. The bus and rail systems could be on the hook for billions of dollars in payments because exotic deals they entered into with investors - which have since been declared unlawful tax shelters - have gone sour.

At the White House, too, Deputy Chief of Staff Joel Kaplan told reporters at a late-morning briefing that the administration had yet to read the fine print of its "conceptual agreement" with congressional Democrats.

"We have not seen final text of legislation that we have agreed to," he said

However, he indicated clear support, saying Bush would personally lobby Republicans and was dispatching Chief of Staff Josh Bolten to Capitol Hill to make the case.

Rep. John A. Boehner, R-Ohio, the minority leader, said the legislation unveiled Wednesday "asks taxpayers to further subsidize a business model that is failing to meet the needs of American workers and consumers."

Under the bill the carmakers would have to submit blueprints on March 31 to the industry overseer showing how they would restructure to ensure their survival, although they could be given until the end of May to negotiate with the government on a final agreement.

A breakthrough came when Democrats agreed to scrap language - which the White House had called a "poison pill" - that would have forced the carmakers to drop lawsuits challenging tough emissions limits in California and other states, said congressional aides.

There was still heartburn among Republicans, however, over language that would force the automakers to abide by those states' limits. Democrats insisted on it as a kind of consolation prize for environmentalists, who already were livid that the measure would draw the emergency loans from an existing program to help carmakers retool their factories to make greener cars.

Kaplan said the Bush administration would work with President-elect Barack Obama's team on choosing the so-called "car czar," acknowledging that Bush's tenure ends soon and the automakers' woes will continue well into 2009.

Mr. Obama defended the auto bailout as necessary given the threat a potential Big Three collapse could pose to an already battered economy.

"As messy as it may be, I think there's a sense of, 'Let's stabilize the patient,"' he said in an interview published in Wednesday's Chicago Tribune and Los Angeles Times.

The car czar would have say-so over any major business decisions by the automakers while they were taking advantage of federal aid, with veto power over any transaction of $100 million or more. The companies - including the private equity firm Cerberus, which owns a majority stake in Chrysler - would have to open their books to the government overseer.

And if Chrysler defaulted on its loan, Cerberus would be responsible for reimbursing the government.

The measure would attach an array of conditions to the bailout money, including some of the same restrictions imposed on banks as part of the $700 billion Wall Street rescue. Among them are limits on executive compensation, a prohibition on paying dividends and requirements that the government share in future profits and taxpayers be repaid before any other shareholders.

Also included in the bill is an unrelated pay-raise for federal judges.

[ibgypsyj]

I am opposed to this bailout. Why is our Government even considering this handout to the auto industry and it''s union?? 4 million other people have lost their jobs and the Government is concerned about these people losing theirs?? It''s prejudice. Let the auto industry go belly up and then reorganize themselves on their own. If they don''t learn from their mistakes, why must we?? Why should UAW employees be any different than any other company who has let employees go????? Let them get in line just like everybody else who has lost a job! *** prejudices!!!

[treknutz]

Forget the auto bailout, what''s totally revolting is that the money AIG is paying out in retention bonus money from THEIR bailout is a fraction what the auto industry needs to survive....is it me or what? When are we going to get the country''s head screwed on straight???? Enough already, quit ******** about the auto makers and focus on the real criminals at AIG and Wall Street you imbaciles!

[craigh9]

PLEASE SENATORS - JUST SAY NO!!!
This "Bridge Loan" will not work. It leaves all contracts in tact - in essence all it does is continue business as usual which we all know can''t happen. The players (Big 3, UAW, etc.) will have to "work together" and NEGOTIATE alterations - which means a great deal of time any energy being spent while this $15B is blown through rapidly.
Chapter 11 is the answer - it truly protects the companies from creditors, voids overbearing contracts sucking the comapnies dry, and places appropriate oversight of the companies to actually make these people amke appropriate decisions.
Bankruptcy IS NOT the end of the companies, NOT the end of Unions, and does NOT screw the supplies that are owed money - it is a process to protect all of those IF quick appropriate decisions can be made and implemented to stop the bleeding of these companies. Leaving everything intact assures only one thing - FAILURE

[irmcvet971]

Just not these same people who destroyed there own company

Posted by WarDogLRS at 01:09 AM : Dec 11, 2008


You people just never seem to get enough do you. When we started down this "Trickle Down" path you losers love... do you remember what America was like back them? You know before we started asking American Workers to compete with China and Forced Labor! There should be FAIR Trade and anyone negotiating those agreements should do that job with the interest of ALL American''s in mind. The American Worker can compete with ANY worker in the world on a LEVEL playing field. When that Worker is forced to compete with workers who get paid less than HALF... well you don''t have to be REALLY smart to figure out why we''re were we are now do you?? The problem here is NOT the amount of money being earned by the hour, it''s the cost of the MILLIONS and MILLIONS of Workers who have retired... you folks remember them don''t you... the one''s who WON WW II? Well it''s the cost of their pensions and Health Care that is the REAL problem. The Fascist, like this fine American, want to throw them under the bus, kick them aside so GM can compete with all that cheap labor!! Where has the Real America gone??

[whitewolf60]

JUST MORE CORPORATE WELFARE....
**sigh**

[fizzie319]

Block that sh*t senate, its up to you now!

While I understand that the automakers are a major employer in America, they need to play the capitalist ball game like all other companies do in America and the world for that matter.

Besides, with the fall of these auto giants will bring about a new generation of auto giants who will support new unions or old unions. The whole system will recycle itself with or without the bailout.

Oh yeah for those who are still convinced that the bailout will work, think of it this way: If the market for the auto industry is *** over the next couple of years, which neither you nor I can predict how it will be, how in the hell will these huge auto giants repay that $14,000,000,000 loan? Bankruptcy? Layoffs? Restructuring? Doesn''t that sound familiar?

[wardoglrs]

When you prop up Garbage it will only stink later.
Bail out''s are robbery they take from the poor and give to the rich. It is UnAmerican to not let them fail cause they wouldn''t be in this if they knew what they were doing.
Yea we need a car maker and a lot more for that matter Just not these same people who destroyed there own company

[itdfactsu]

Manhattan Institute, a right-wing think tank that specializes in demonizing the poor while promoting tax cuts, financial deregulation, the dismantling of social programs and the decimation of public education.

As well they''re anti-union and anti living wage for US workers

[itdfactsu]

In a nationally televised speech delivered September 24, in advance of the congressional vote on the bailout plan, Bush said it would "help American consumers and businessmen get credit to meet their daily needs and create jobs." If the bailout was not passed, he warned, "More banks could fail, including some in your community. The stock market would drop even more, which would reduce the value of your retirement account.... More businesses would close their doors, and millions of Americans could lose their jobs ... ultimately, our country could experience a long and painful recession."

One month later, the bailout has been enacted, and all of the dire developments--banks and businesses disappearing, the stock market plunging, unemployment skyrocketing--which the American people were told it would prevent are unfolding with accelerating speed.

[itdfactsu]

You all who criticize UAW should be ashamed of yourself.

While I''''m against the bailouts because its just a bailout for hedge-loot-fund "Cerebrus Capital LL,

Auto workers and Airplane manufactures were the only ones who were truly in the ''''middle-class'''' in this country for the last 40 years.

Everyone else who took out debt or deferred their parents savings to go to college to learn make-shift work in finance, and lawyering, etc,

The union manufacturing base guaranteed that you did not have to go into debt to learn a skill that will make you a ''''middle-class'''' income.

However because we refused to raise ''''tarrifs'''' on imports to protect those ''''middle-class'''' jobs, we are now in a crisis!

The managers of those companies were forced to cut-corners and lower quality standards to compete with ''''globalization'''' and yet the public was fooled into blaming the UAW worker.

Till this day, critics of the UAW workers are blinded by ''''globalization'''' even though its globalization that brought you this crisis.

EMPIRE = GLOBALIZATION = LOWER WAGES = MORE DEBT = SERFDOM

Until we can connect the dots of this conspiracy, we are destined to breakdown into nothing.



Posted by whitemale08 at 11:56 PM : Dec 10, 2008


RIGHT WING THINK TANKS AND RIGHT WING CONTROLLED US MEDIA IS PUTTING OUT THE PROPGANDA AGAINST THE UAW

[itdfactsu]

WE MUST STOP THE LOOTING!!!!

WE MUST SHUT-DOWN GLOBALIZATION ALONG WITH THE FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM!!!

WE MUST RAISE TARIFFS ON IMPORTS TO STOP FORCING OUR INDUSTRIES FROM COMPETING WITH ''''''''GLOBALIZATION''''''''.

WE MUST USE SOVERIEGN CREDIT TO REBUILD AMERICA AND DEVELOP 3RD WORLD COUNTRIES THAT WILL BENEFIT ALL MANKIND AND PUT BILLIONS OF PEOPLE TO WORK!!!


Posted by whitemale08 at 11:59 PM : Dec 10, 2008

YEP

[itdfactsu]

Go hit the dope Lib.




Posted by firehose12 at 12:12 AM : Dec 11, 2008

I''ll have to settle for a cyber slap to your face since you''re the dope

[itdfactsu]

Go hit the dope Lib.




Posted by firehose12 at 12:12 AM : Dec 11, 2008

I''ll have to settle for a cyber slap to your face since you''re the dope

[itdfactsu]

itdfactsu said, "THE GOP WANTS TO BUST THE UNIONS AND LOWER WAGES FOR MOST WORKING AMERICAN''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''''S "
---

I fully understand your concern- the GOP already has decimated union membership and clout for the last 30 years. American middle-class wages and savings have made no headway at all during the GOP/Bush term, and in many respects, have slid toward poverty.

That said, the remedy is not to kill the patient (the auto industry) but apply appropriate reforms to the industry during recovery.

This is exactly why the GOP is opposed to government aid to Detroit-- it fears the precedent of a government/industry partnership, such is found almost everywhere else in the world, from the EU to Japan. To even the GOP, that partnership makes a great deal of sense, and is the basis of Detroit''''''''''''''''s appeal to Washington-- "We''''''''''''''''re all in this together!"

Yet, back-channel GOP thinktank chatter is near meltdown over concern that federal oversight will take away the prized freedom of overpaid corporate boards to rule by fiat-- to overcompensate CEOs and other executives, and overburden line and staff workers with "take it or leave it" ultimatums. Economic justice-- aka, sharing prosperity-- puts the fear of God in the GOP.

Dies Irae notwithstanding, direct federal aid is an unprecedented opportunity for all parties to recognize their interdependence, and work for the common goal of sharing prosperity.



Posted by alphaa10000 at 11:10 PM : Dec 10, 2008

[firehose12]

You all who criticize UAW should be ashamed of yourself.

Posted by whitemale08 at 11:56 PM : Dec 10, 2008


Just shut-up & buy the UAW made c.rap yourself.

Park it in your trailer park with pride.

[firehose12]

You all who criticize UAW should be ashamed of yourself.

Posted by whitemale08 at 11:56 PM : Dec 10, 2008


Just shut-up & buy the UAW made *** yourself.

[whitemale08]

WE MUST STOP THE LOOTING!!!!

WE MUST SHUT-DOWN GLOBALIZATION ALONG WITH THE FEDERAL RESERVE SYSTEM!!!

WE MUST RAISE TARIFFS ON IMPORTS TO STOP FORCING OUR INDUSTRIES FROM COMPETING WITH ''GLOBALIZATION''.

WE MUST USE SOVERIEGN CREDIT TO REBUILD AMERICA AND DEVELOP 3RD WORLD COUNTRIES THAT WILL BENEFIT ALL MANKIND AND PUT BILLIONS OF PEOPLE TO WORK!!!

[whitemale08]

You all who criticize UAW should be ashamed of yourself.

While I''m against the bailouts because its just a bailout for hedge-loot-fund "Cerebrus Capital LL,

Auto workers and Airplane manufactures were the only ones who were truly in the ''middle-class'' in this country for the last 40 years.

Everyone else who took out debt or deferred their parents savings to go to college to learn make-shift work in finance, and lawyering, etc,

The union manufacturing base guaranteed that you did not have to go into debt to learn a skill that will make you a ''middle-class'' income.

However because we refused to raise ''tarrifs'' on imports to protect those ''middle-class'' jobs, we are now in a crisis!

The managers of those companies were forced to cut-corners and lower quality standards to compete with ''globalization'' and yet the public was fooled into blaming the UAW worker.

Till this day, critics of the UAW workers are blinded by ''globalization'' even though its globalization that brought you this crisis.

EMPIRE = GLOBALIZATION = LOWER WAGES = MORE DEBT = SERFDOM

Until we can connect the dots of this conspiracy, we are destined to breakdown into nothing.

[itdfactsu]

In a nationally televised speech delivered September 24, in advance of the congressional vote on the bailout plan, Bush said it would "help American consumers and businessmen get credit to meet their daily needs and create jobs." If the bailout was not passed, he warned, "More banks could fail, including some in your community. The stock market would drop even more, which would reduce the value of your retirement account.... More businesses would close their doors, and millions of Americans could lose their jobs ... ultimately, our country could experience a long and painful recession."

One month later, the bailout has been enacted, and all of the dire developments--banks and businesses disappearing, the stock market plunging, unemployment skyrocketing--which the American people were told it would prevent are unfolding with accelerating speed.

[itdfactsu]

itdfactsu said, "THE GOP WANTS TO BUST THE UNIONS AND LOWER WAGES FOR MOST WORKING AMERICAN''''''''''''''''S "
---

I fully understand your concern- the GOP already has decimated union membership and clout for the last 30 years. American middle-class wages and savings have made no headway at all during the GOP/Bush term, and in many respects, have slid toward poverty.

That said, the remedy is not to kill the patient (the auto industry) but apply appropriate reforms to the industry during recovery.

This is exactly why the GOP is opposed to government aid to Detroit-- it fears the precedent of a government/industry partnership, such is found almost everywhere else in the world, from the EU to Japan. To even the GOP, that partnership makes a great deal of sense, and is the basis of Detroit''''''''s appeal to Washington-- "We''''''''re all in this together!"

Yet, back-channel GOP thinktank chatter is near meltdown over concern that federal oversight will take away the prized freedom of overpaid corporate boards to rule by fiat-- to overcompensate CEOs and other executives, and overburden line and staff workers with "take it or leave it" ultimatums. Economic justice-- aka, sharing prosperity-- puts the fear of God in the GOP.

Dies Irae notwithstanding, direct federal aid is an unprecedented opportunity for all parties to recognize their interdependence, and work for the common goal of sharing prosperity.



Posted by alphaa10000 at 11:10 PM : Dec 10, 2008