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Step Away From The Table
(Note: Reprinted from my website.)
Once again, Democratic "leadership" in Congress has failed to lead. If anything resembling a bailout of the domestic auto companies comes out of that bifurcated body, it will not resemble anything a truly progressive Democrat could support -- except on a direct plea from the fools who supposedly run things.
Once again, Democratic "leadership" in Congress has proven that negotiation is an art, and they don't know which end of the paintbrush to hold.
Let's review the bidding: President-elect Obama calls on Congress to do something. The CEOs of the "big three" domestic auto companies are summoned to Washington, where they are pilloried and sent home with orders to return. They return as ordered, are subjected to more horsewhipping in "hearings" that accomplish nothing (as hearings are wont to do).
Behind the scenes, Democratic "leaders" are busy talking with Bush administration officials. As a result of those talks, the Democrats cave in to just about every demand the White House makes. (No wonder Congress has a lower favorability rating that the President!) Then, after reaching some sort of agreement, and getting it through the House, they run into the Senate Republican juggernaut.
Huh?
That's right, the minority party in the Senate, which is supposed to be in lock step with their "leader" in the White House, is actually the "next wave." Suddenly the "bi-partisan" deal isn't so bi-partisan after all, and the minority party has the upper hand -- again.
In these talks, as with almost everything they have attempted over the past two years, Pelosi and Reid made two inexcusable errors. First, they talked only with the White House and not Senate Republicans (whose support they need to get anything done). This was just plain stupid. Worse, it's a mistake they've made before and from which they haven't learned.
Their second mistake was being unwilling to walk away. Republicans always seem perfectly willing to get nothing done, rather than accept something less than virtually everything they want. Democrats, on the other hand, seem willing to cave in on practically everything in exchange for a meaningless "victory" in passing some piece of garbage that passes for legislation (see "$700 billion bailout").
Don't think that, come next year, Mitch McConnell and his 40 or 41 colleagues on that side of the aisle don't know they can still have the rest of us over a barrel any time they want. And don't think he won't use the same tactics -- send his House leaders to get everything they can, then hold up the process until he gets even more.
The time has come for Pelosi & Reid to grow a spine. The time has come for them to be willing to walk away from important legislation, rather than let so much crap get by.
Unfortunately, for Pelosi & Reid, timing is not their strong point either.
Update #1
As of about 9:00 this evening (Thursday, Dec. 11), an announcement was made that the Senate was very close to an agreement. As expected, this agreement would, for all practical purposes, gut the United Auto Workers. The plan, put forward by Tennessee Senator Bob Corker (the guy whose phony Playboy ads helped him beat Harold Ford in 2006), would require the union to accept wages equal to those paid to nonunion workers, and would change the way "payments" are made to the union's retirees' healthcare plan, from cash or other fairly "safe" assets to equity in the car companies.
It appears that Harry Reid is willing to accept this "compromise." No word on Nancy Pelosi's reaction.
Update #2
The NY Times reports, as of just before 11:00, that the deal is dead. Apparently, some Democrats do have a spine (most likely banking committee chairman Chris Dodd).
The bad news -- stocks are all but certain to take a dive tomorrow.
The unknown news -- 2 items:
First: Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson may decide to use TARP funds (that's the $700 billion bailout) to keep GM and Chrysler operating for a while.
Second: We don't really know what would happen if, say, GM were to file for bankruptcy. We've heard a lot of scare headlines -- two (or three) million jobs lost, etc. But the fact is, nobody has truly tested the "too big to fail" concept and found it to be true. It's just possible that the auto industry as a whole (and the economy) will absorb the shock, just as the airline industry absorbed the "shock" when Pan Am, Eastern, and other major airlines went out of business. Certainly, Boeing managed to survive after having major orders canceled by those bankruptcies.
What happens next? Who knows? But I'll make one prediction: Even if GM and Chrysler file for Chapter 11 protection, things won't be nearly as bad as the scaremongers have claimed.
Do you really want to put this to the test?
That's what they tried with Lehman Brothers, wasn't it?
As to the gutting of the UAW, while the benefits erosion would be real, and dangerous, the wage concession would only be a recognition of something that's already reality. I've seen data showing that current UAW wages and those in non-union Southern plants are about the same, in the high $20's per hour average. The real damage, IMO, would be to the union's bargaining power for the future.
Lehman Brothers
Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch both failed -- and somehow, the entire investment system continues. Yes, we are dealing currently with serious problems, but the failures of these institutions was not a cause, it was a symptom.
We won't know the final results of these failures for some time, but it seems to me that if Bear, Stearns had been allowed to fail then we would have had a far earlier wakeup call, been able to take more time to plan any sort of "bailout" without the crisis mentality that led to the disastrous waste of a quarter of a trillion dollars (where has that money gone, anyway?). The reason for the crisis mentality was probably more about Congressmembers' collective desire to go home and campaign than everything else put together.
As regards the UAW, they have been trapped between a real desire to to their job, which is to provide the best possible working conditions for their members, and a combination the past 28 years of government hostility to unions and over 50 years of a shortsighted and stupid foreign policy that has gutted American manufacturing. I'm confident that they will continue to find ways to help their members, because they've always done an excellent job, but we have to start looking at the larger picture.
I disagree with you.
I do not think that the failure of the auto industry bail out bill was a failure of bargaining technique or a failure of spine. The GOP Senate sees political advantage in its anti-union stance. Our task is to make every local GOP office holder from Frank Padavan (if he survives) to Martin Golden pay for their party's position.
The big picture
The failure to reach an agreement on this particular issue was due in large part to Republican tactics, designed to sabotage talks. UAW president Rob Gettelfinger is holding a press conference as I write this, in which he puts the blame for the breakdown of negotiations squarely on the shoulders of Senator Corker and the Senate Republican caucus.
But if the Democratic leadership had a spine, if they had showed that spine consistently for the past two years, you can bet the farm that an agreement would have been reached -- one that would have found a way to preserve good union jobs. I'll go even further -- if Democratic leaders had showed that spine consistently for the past 28 years, then all those jobs at plants run by Toyota, Nissan, Honda, VW, and other foreign-owned companies would be union jobs today.
Yes, we're going to "lose" some battles, but only by standing up for what we believe can we hope to win the larger fight. This particular mess is not the whole picture; it's just a few pixels.
I Agree With You Daniel
Go after EVERY REPUBLICAN, in every town, city and state. Get rid of all of them. Another thing I'm thinking of, how many of us drive and how many have foreign made cars? What if we sold those cars and buy American replacements?
The best way to get
The best way to get Americans to buy American cars is to give them a tax credit. That would move the cars off the lots & keep our car manufacturers ijn the money.
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