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BUSH BLINKS AND DOOMS DETROIT 12/17/2008 For some weeks the press has been mulling what president Bush’s legacy will be. (As if they won’t try to pin him as an evil warmonger) Anyway he seems bent on being remembered for the President that nationalized everything in the name of the economy. I understand his intention but I oppose his method. Regardless he has turned his sights to the auto industry and has gone back on his word and intends to bail out the tiny three. In doing this I fear he may have sealed their fate. First of all the “Big three” are not the auto industry. They are but tiny players in an industry that they used to dominate. There is a thriving non union industry south of Detroit and though it is feeling the effects of the economy it is still expanding and building new plants. Notice I said “non Union”. The GOP in their attempts to get the tiny three to restructure so they would not be returning begging for more. The major issue was labor costs succeeded in stopping the bill.. They need to be brought to within competitive range with the imports. Now the Republicans made it as flexible as possible yet the UAW refused to revisit the labor costs per employee until the current contract expires in 2011. Now I thought the tiny three were days away from expiration yet the UAW who supposedly looks out for the workers wants to wait until 2011. Actually it was a game of chicken between Bush and the UAW in Toyota’s. At the last minute Bush swerved off the road and ended up in a ditch covered in goat poo. By saying that he would not allow the tiny three to collapse Bush effectively ceded all power to the UAW. They now can do as they like, or more to the point do nothing and the government will still bail them out. SO we the people who are footing the bill are paying now for changes that may never occur. And these changes that won’t be happeniong for 2 years will have them back asking us to open our wallets yet again. Now the liberal spin on this is the evil Conservatives simply want to break the back of the unions. That’s ironic since it is the UAW with it’s rules and exorbitant benefits for retirees. Example 30 and out. If you start with the plant at 20 you can retire with full benefits at 50. However since said retiree is not elegiable for Medicare until age 65 even more generous benefits were demanded by the Union. At some point these benefits would kill the company. That point was reached a long time ago so now we are at the desperation point. All the GOP want is something realistic and a solid buisiness plan. The UAW won’t play ball and President Bush has decided to be the ball boy. So the UAW gets its way and the tiny three gets its money. Come January the whole process will begin again. Then what? The same again? At this rate we the taxpayers are better off owning the car companies since we will have to continue supporting them. I am not in any way advocating nationalizing the tiny three but our current Administration is too niave and the UAW is too corrupt to make the necessary changes that would make the tiny three viable once more. It seems to me dear reader that the UAW knows that if the tiny three were to function like the imports there would be no need for them. They would become obsolete. Just look at the plants in the south where “right to Work” laws prevail. Average pay and benefits are roughly $45 an hour. With benefits like that you don’t need a Union and the UAW knows it. As it stands now the Bush Administration has all but secured the fate of the tiny three and it’s a question of who goes broke first. The car manufacturers or the government. -Bert, your Conservative Troubadour in C Sharp
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