$100 billion to waste, not a dime for workers
Hmm, let’s see if I get this. The Republicans object to bailing out General Motors and Chrysler because members of the United Auto Workers are paid too much. Yes, I get that.
But their opposition comes at the same time an unpublished federal history is calling our nation building in Iraq a $100 billion failure. So $100 billion wasted on cronies in Iraq is okay, but $15 billion to help American workers is not. Yes, I think I get that, too.
The people who work for Halliburton and the Blackwater mercenaries are not union members, so it’s
permissible to squander tax money on them, but those greedy American auto workers are not worthy of help. Right, I got it now. Keep on busting the unions and bankrupting the country on
phony wars.
And it gets worse. The government is unable to account for all the money it has spent in Iraq, just as it is now unable to account for the bailout money it has given banks. But if government tax collectors were to audit your books, you would certainly be expected to account for your money.
Now the question is do the Obama people get it, because they are talking about spending even more money in Afghanistan while millions of Americans are out of work, wages have been stagnant and benefits are vanishing.
Pension funds looted, investors swindled while the feds slept, the people hornswoggled into a profiteers’ war—and now the Republicans, who stood by and watched their man let an American city drown, refuse to protect automaker jobs because the union members are paid more than foreigners are willing to pay them.
Ladies and gentlemen, there is another elephant in the room. It’s papering the American worker to the wall. Please exercise a little common sense and human decency and take the elephant for a walk.
Our Iraq adventure has been one lie after another, and now we have the federal government itself saying so. We did not rebuild Iraq. We bankrupted ourselves trying to repair the damage we did, and we handed the country over to Iranian influence while claiming a victory we couldn’t even define.
In other words, we have astounded the entire world with our folly and in so doing we have crashed the world’s economy. This recession might well have befallen us had we been smart enough to stay out of Iraq, and it might well be easier to get out of if we don’t get more deeply involved in Afghanistan, but to make the case that it is wrong to give pigheaded Detroit any help while it was right to waste $100 billion in an Iraq folly of monumental proportion beggars the imagination. How can the Republicans make such a case with a straight face? Answer: same way Wall Street hotshots swindled us.
Bail out Iraq, after having dismantled it, but not bail out Detroit and struggling American wage earners. Bail out Iraq but let New Orleans drown? Where is their decency? Billions for panderers, thieves, profiteers, swindlers and swine and not a penny for workers because they’re paid too much?
Democrats, you have your work cut out for you, but it’s going to require a spine, the very thing that has been in short supply among you.—DM
GM and Chrysler should be following Ford’s lead and get themselves out of the monumental mess they put themselves in. Decrease benefits packages, take away bonuses, take that $80 dollar-an-hour wage (this number including benefits and bonuses) and drop it to $50 like a regular worker anywhere else. Hell, they’re making enough money to raise their families well, and don’t even need it for the health care they can avoid in doing so. Let them make their hourly wage as they have, just cut back on the benefits and save some damned money.
Hell, it might actually do something for the auto industry in terms of pricing/sales! But, Alas, GM and Chrysler (especially Chrysler) are just the proverbial whiny little teenagers asking pappy for more spending money so they can buy some chips and pop, because they think they deserve it somehow.