{"id":5798,"date":"2008-12-12T01:23:08","date_gmt":"2008-12-12T08:42:56","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=5798"},"modified":"2008-12-12T01:23:08","modified_gmt":"2008-12-12T08:42:56","slug":"republicans-to-detroit-drop-dead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/?p=5798","title":{"rendered":"Republicans to Detroit: Drop Dead"},"content":{"rendered":"

Evidently the Republican Party likes being a Southern regional party. Because they wouldn’t be doing this if they ever hoped to win Michigan, Ohio, or Pennsylvania ever again<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The Senate on Thursday night abandoned efforts to fashion a government rescue of the American automobile industry, as Senate Republicans refused to support a bill endorsed by the White House and Congressional Democrats.<\/p>\n

The failure to reach agreement on Capitol Hill raised a specter of financial collapse for General Motors and Chrysler, which say they may not be able to survive through this month.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

What was the sticking point? Well, Democrats and the White House had hoped to give employees until 2011 to accept severe cuts in wages and benefits — cuts the UAW had agreed to. Senate Republicans said no, we want those cuts now<\/em>:<\/p>\n

After Senate Republicans balked at supporting a $14 billion auto rescue plan approved by the House on Wednesday, negotiators worked late into Thursday evening to broker a deal, but deadlocked over Republican demands for steep cuts in pay and benefits by the United Automobile Workers union in 2009.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Now, I may have missed it, but back when we passed the financial bailout, do you remember Republicans hand-wringing about how we had to ensure that the companies significantly cut white collar compensation at those banks?<\/p>\n

Come to think of it, do you see anything here suggesting that the GOP is interested in cutting white collar salaries at GM, Chrysler, or Ford?<\/p>\n

Of course not. The GOP saw this as a golden opportunity to screw over unions and blue collar workers, and as such, they’re managing to screw everyone over<\/a>. If there’s good news, it’s that — and I can’t believe I’m typing these words — the Bush Administration is a good deal more sane than the Senate Republicans<\/a>:<\/p>\n

The proposal to loan $14 billion to Detroit’s struggling automakers collapsed late Thursday night but the Big Three may get some money anyway.<\/p>\n

Bush officials warned wavering GOP senators that if they didn’t support the legislation, the White House will likely be forced to tap the Wall Street bailout to lend them money, two Republican congressional officials told CNN earlier.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Of course, that would be money given to the automakers with no strings attached.<\/p>\n

So heckuva job, GOP. In one vote, you managed to alienate blue collar workers, damage the economy, and ultimately create a situation in which you get a worse deal for your side than you otherwise would have by being adults. That’s the sort of leadership we’ve come to expect from you.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Evidently the Republican Party likes being a Southern regional party. Because they wouldn’t be doing this if they ever hoped to win Michigan, Ohio, or Pennsylvania ever again: The Senate on Thursday night abandoned efforts to fashion a government rescue … Continue reading →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[25],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-5798","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-economics-and-the-like"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5798","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=5798"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5798\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=5798"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=5798"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/amptoons.com\/blog\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=5798"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}