SHOULDN'T BE THIS HARD TO GET A CAR LOAN
| By David Lore, Licking County Pro-Active Citizens - Dec 19th, 2008 at 3:57 pm EST |
| Also listed in: Appalachian Populists | Interfaith Peace Coalition | Licking County Pro-Active Citizens (www.licopac.org) | Perry County Democratic Forum |
Watching President Bush this morning announce his decision to extend a $13.4 billion bridge loan to General Motors and Chrysler, I only wished somebody else was in charge.
No, not Barack Obama. Not yet.
What's called for now is not a fair-minded compromiser but a real nut-cruncher, somebody who will shake up this lethargic old industry from hubcap to antenna.
Someone like…. Ralph Nader, my dream "car czar."
So where is Nader when we really need him? In recent elections, we couldn't get rid of him.
Not that he'd ever be appointed "car czar," although he's the acknowledged king of the car critics. The auto companies hate him because of his relentless attacks on their industry over the decades. The Republicans view him as a wild-eyed socialist. And the Democrats can't get over the votes he took from John Kerry in 2004, throwing Ohio (and the election) to Bush.
But maybe, with countless journalists now scratching for new angles on the story, wouldn't you think somebody would at least ask "Corvair" Ralph for his opinion on all this?
That's an interview I'd like to see. (G.H.)
Meanwhile, this file from David Kreech, a local Obama volunteer:
"All the problems with the "Big 3" auto makers and their products are well documented - and I am not about to try and defend any one of them.
Let me remind you of a famous saying of Bill Clinton in 1992: "It's the economy, stupid!"
Of course, the U.S. automakers do not deserve a bailout. Of course, many of their problems are self made and have been brewing for years.
It is, however, equally true that the current automotive crisis was precipitated by the global economic crisis, the latter caused by the American financial sector's greed and the repeal of sensible regulation by the Bush administration's previous ideological belief that "free market forces cure all." That was the straw that broke the camel's back.
Again, none of the Detroit automakers deserve help - but to let them go into liquidation is not an option. Neither are romantic notions of Chapter 11 bankruptcy "allowing freedom from outdated contracts and emerging as a leaner, meaner more efficient company afterwards" being spouted by those Republican senators who blocked Congressional action on the loan package. Bankruptcy is just not an option. Even Bush recognizes that nobody will buy cars from a Chapter 11 auto company. And even healthy companies can't get restructuring funds from non-lending banks right now. So it is a choice between bailout and liquidation.
We have to bail them out. The alternative is a potential world-wide Depression.
Republican legislators used this situation to force feed their agenda of "kill the unions and stop these uppity workers from demanding a living wage" - or we won't lift a finger to help you. So far, regrettably, they have succeeded.
Obama is also opposed to a bailout "blank check" and has gone on record several times saying so. He has a much different vision. The way out of the US, and hence global, recession is to invest in the future, he believes. That means green industries, energy independence through a reduction in the capacity of oil rich nations to blackmail the industrial world, and serious attempts to combat global warming. The key enabler here is a transformed domestic car industry. Obama believes America should lead the world in developing a 21st Century alternative to oil-guzzling transportation. The conditions he is looking for are all have to do with transforming the "big 3" into pillars of this change.
That is why these companies cannot be allowed to disappear before he even takes office."
No, not Barack Obama. Not yet.
What's called for now is not a fair-minded compromiser but a real nut-cruncher, somebody who will shake up this lethargic old industry from hubcap to antenna.
Someone like…. Ralph Nader, my dream "car czar."
So where is Nader when we really need him? In recent elections, we couldn't get rid of him.
Not that he'd ever be appointed "car czar," although he's the acknowledged king of the car critics. The auto companies hate him because of his relentless attacks on their industry over the decades. The Republicans view him as a wild-eyed socialist. And the Democrats can't get over the votes he took from John Kerry in 2004, throwing Ohio (and the election) to Bush.
But maybe, with countless journalists now scratching for new angles on the story, wouldn't you think somebody would at least ask "Corvair" Ralph for his opinion on all this?
That's an interview I'd like to see. (G.H.)
Meanwhile, this file from David Kreech, a local Obama volunteer:
"All the problems with the "Big 3" auto makers and their products are well documented - and I am not about to try and defend any one of them.
Let me remind you of a famous saying of Bill Clinton in 1992: "It's the economy, stupid!"
Of course, the U.S. automakers do not deserve a bailout. Of course, many of their problems are self made and have been brewing for years.
It is, however, equally true that the current automotive crisis was precipitated by the global economic crisis, the latter caused by the American financial sector's greed and the repeal of sensible regulation by the Bush administration's previous ideological belief that "free market forces cure all." That was the straw that broke the camel's back.
Again, none of the Detroit automakers deserve help - but to let them go into liquidation is not an option. Neither are romantic notions of Chapter 11 bankruptcy "allowing freedom from outdated contracts and emerging as a leaner, meaner more efficient company afterwards" being spouted by those Republican senators who blocked Congressional action on the loan package. Bankruptcy is just not an option. Even Bush recognizes that nobody will buy cars from a Chapter 11 auto company. And even healthy companies can't get restructuring funds from non-lending banks right now. So it is a choice between bailout and liquidation.
We have to bail them out. The alternative is a potential world-wide Depression.
Republican legislators used this situation to force feed their agenda of "kill the unions and stop these uppity workers from demanding a living wage" - or we won't lift a finger to help you. So far, regrettably, they have succeeded.
Obama is also opposed to a bailout "blank check" and has gone on record several times saying so. He has a much different vision. The way out of the US, and hence global, recession is to invest in the future, he believes. That means green industries, energy independence through a reduction in the capacity of oil rich nations to blackmail the industrial world, and serious attempts to combat global warming. The key enabler here is a transformed domestic car industry. Obama believes America should lead the world in developing a 21st Century alternative to oil-guzzling transportation. The conditions he is looking for are all have to do with transforming the "big 3" into pillars of this change.
That is why these companies cannot be allowed to disappear before he even takes office."
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