Why the double standard on Detroit?
By
Bill Press Read Spanish Version
No
wonder people don’t trust politicians. Americans just voted
overwhelmingly to steer this country in a new direction, yet Congress
has ignored the pleas of Barack Obama and voted instead to continue
the disastrous economic policies of George W. Bush by letting the
American auto industry collapse.
In
the acrimonious debate over an emergency loan to Detroit, we saw some
of the worst examples of political preening, pretending and
pontificating ever. And not just by Republicans.
Suddenly,
before approving any financial help to automakers, members of
Congress demanded answers from them that they never demanded from
Wall Street. Everything they wanted to know was reasonable: What kind
of changes are they going to make in their day-to-day operations?
What structural changes have they agreed to? What limits are they
going to put on executive salaries? What guarantees exist that we’ll
get our money back?
Again,
those are all good questions, and questions Congress should ask. But
Congress members were hypocrites in demanding answers to those
questions from Detroit automakers when they had so recently approved
a $700 billion bailout of Wall Street banks and financial
institutions with nary a peep: no oversight, no accountability, no
conditions, no restrictions.
Have
Ford, Chrysler and General Motors made mistakes? Absolutely. For
years, they stubbornly ignored all the signs and all the warnings
that their business plan was headed for disaster. They fought
congressional pressure to raise make more fuel-efficient cars. They
dragged their feet on research into alternative fuels or electric
cars. Instead, they kept turning out bigger and bigger gas guzzlers.
Now the turkeys have come home to roost. Detroit automakers are stuck
with outmoded plants and a huge inventory of cars nobody wants to
buy. And they’re still years from producing anything close to
Toyota’s hugely popular Prius.
Should
Ford, Chrysler and General Motors be forced to change their ways?
Absolutely. Indeed, this is the chance for Congress to force
automakers to make the structural changes they have so long resisted:
retooling plants to produce smaller, greener cars; dumping SUVs and
Hummers; speeding up production of electric, photovoltaic or hydrogen
non-fossil-fuel vehicles; and placing limits on executive
compensation. Those are fair demands to make of Detroit in exchange
for a federal bailout.
There’s
nothing wrong with putting strings on federal dollars. But here’s my
question: Why the huge double standard? Wall Street firms, remember,
also screwed up. Indeed, they’re the ones that drove us into the
ditch in the first place. So why should they get all the dollars they
want with no questions asked and no strings attached, yet Detroit be
forced to jump through so many congressional hoops? Or why, as
decided by George Bush and Hank Paulson — and endorsed by Congress
— should banks and financial institutions get the entire $700
billion, while automakers most likely get not a penny of federal
assistance?
For
Republicans, we know the answer: because Wall Street is non-union,
and Detroit is all-union. Because Wall Street is white-collar and
Detroit is blue-collar. Because Wall Street is upper-class and
Detroit is middle-class. And Republicans would rather swallow glass
than help a middle-class, blue-collar union member.
But
what’s wrong with Democrats, who got re-elected with the help of
labor unions and are now gleefully stabbing them in the back? Do they
really want to make their first post-Obama-election move the death of
the American auto industry? Apparently so. Massachusetts Democrat
Michael Capuano set the tone by telling leaders of the Big Three:
"Damn it, I don’t want to give you this money and have it
stuffed back in my face."
Instead,
Capuano and fellow self-righteous Democrats decided they’d rather
help George W. Bush kill 3 to 5 million more jobs, cause 775,000
retirees to lose their pensions, and force 2 million workers to lose
their health benefits. You think the economy’s bad now? Imagine how
much worse it will be when U.S. automakers go belly up, wiping out 20
percent of all retail sales in America, eliminating one out of 10
American jobs and destroying what little is left of America’s
manufacturing sector.
This
is the time to change Detroit, not to kill it. If Congress can
suddenly find $700 billion to bail out the banks, certainly it can
find $25 billion as an emergency loan — not bailout, but loan — to
help the auto industry retool and regroup. Letting Detroit go
bankrupt is a risk we simply can’t afford.
Bill
Press is host of a nationally syndicated radio show and author of a
new book, "Train
Wreck: The End of the Conservative Revolution (and Not a Moment Too
Soon)."
You can hear "The Bill Press Show" at his Web site:
billpressshow.com. His email address is: bill@billpress.com.
(c)
2008 Tribune Media Services, Inc.
