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  • TUESDAY DECEMBER 16 2008 6:00 AM

Massive Republican Fail

Submitted by FearTheReaper

Edited by nicole_powers

Tags: Republicans, Bailout, Big 3, Unions

Well, the Republicans sure did fight for their beliefs last week, didn’t they? Quite an impressive move standing up for CEOs during the first bailout, then attacking the workingman during the second bailout. It takes either a huge set of balls or being so distanced from reality that they don’t realize they have once again, decreased their followers. It will certainly backfire, as everything the Republicans do these days seems to.

It is hilariously heinous and a sign of the morally bereft that they would actually claim that Detroit’s autoworkers are paid too much, while also claiming the rich are taxed too much? How fucked up of a human being do you have to hold such fucked up beliefs. They are no better than vermin.

Take the simple minded Tennessee Senator Bob Corker. Bobby believes the horrible unions should accept “parity” with workers from his state. By “parity” he means the workingman should make less, like in his state, where autoworkers of foreign car companies live with discriminatory, anti-labor laws designed to keep wages low. Notice Bob didn’t say this about Wall Street. He failed to mention the insane CEO salaries and ridiculous bonuses of the banking crowd. No, it’s the workingman getting ahead that is dragging our country down. Yes, we need workers to make less money. That is obviously the problem with the auto companies. I can see no other problems. None at all. Other than the horrible unions, the Big 3 put the A in awesome.

So, the answer is to drive down the wage of blue-collar, mostly black workers. Hopefully, at some point, the wages of the workingman in this country will be on par with those in Mexico. Then the companies would really thrive! Hey, Bob, why don’t you make the same as a city councilman in Des Moines? Wouldn’t the federal budget be better off if you Senators weren’t making so much money? Don’t be greedy, Bob. You’re killing your country. Just take the pay cut down to the level of a guy living in a different place, but working in the same business.

Here’s an insane idea: Workers who produce things of value deserve a decent living. I know. It’s like I just wrote the words of Satan. Jesus would be disgusted. It’s also become more and more obvious in the past week that the only way for the workingman to achieve a decent living is through unions. That’s why they exist — because of assholes like Bob Corker.

The auto companies have actually been turning things around. The unions have made quite a few concessions over the past two years and GM, Ford and Chrysler cars are matching the quality of Japanese cars consistently. No excuse can be made for the insane over-production of gas-guzzlers. But the credit crunch is what really killed them, not the unions.

So, why does my headline say this is a massive Republican fail? They blocked the bailout, didn’t they? That will kill the union, won’t it? No.

Bush will bail out the auto companies, mostly because Hoover wouldn’t have. Keeping people employed in times like this is how you avoid a great depression, allowing millions to lose their jobs in this kind of teetering economy is what leads to great depressions. Anyone who knows how to read should understand that. So, Bush will do the right thing and bail out the auto companies — and there will be no strings attached.

Everything the Republicans wanted they will not get. The unions agreed to meet the Republicans demands, but just not in the time frame the Republicans wanted. Now that is gone. There won’t be a “car czar,” there won’t be a plan to place the burden of the bailout on workers, instead of upper management. Basically, Democrats are going to get the auto bailout they wanted from day one. Republicans won’t get shit.

No, actually, that’s not true. They will get something: The loss of support of many, many people in the Midwest whose lives rely on the auto industry. Those people have all watched as southern Republican Senators attempted to protect the interests of foreign-owned auto manufacturers with companies in their states. They watched as Republicans blatantly decided it was more important to blame the workers than the management that had made shitty decisions for years, while they took huge salaries. Republicans have literally come to a place where they are fighting against American manufacturing. That’s an insane stance to take in our country.

The Republicans just withdrew even more into the south. Good luck winning Indiana, Ohio, Michigan, Wisconsin and Minnesota ever again. If they had made a decent, reasonable argument to oppose the bailout, they may have had a chance. But they didn’t. They offered no clear explanation of the dangers of failure. They only attacked the unions. One conservative blogger put it succinctly:

I keep thinking about Mitch McConnell saying yesterday that he’ll oppose the bailout even though it’s “impossible to know” what the consequences of bankruptcy would be. Hey, Mitch? Not good enough. No one’s asking for absolute certainty on the outcome, which really is impossible; what I want is a good-faith attempt at assessing costs, benefits, and probabilities of all courses of action.

But make the case. Explain to me why, in the middle of a global economic crisis, propping up a failing industry to save jobs at least until the crisis is over is a worse option than pulling the plug now. The prospect of being taxed to support a $100 billion rescue of the auto industry is awful, but not nearly as awful as the cascade effect of consumer purchasing power drying up and me losing my job as part of a $500 billion hit to the economy. Is that what we’re looking at here or is it something less, or more.



They did not. Because this was not about the economy, or doing what is best for the country. This was about the sticking with exact same rigid ideology that created the Great Depression and stubbornly ignoring the obvious lessons learned from Hoover's and Mellon's tactics. They are literally attempting repeat the exact policies that led to the Great Depression. Next they'll try to balance the budget during this mess, because Hoover was right!

Republicans only attacked the unions. The workingman is under assault, which just happens to be the Republican bread and butter. Democrats won't lose any of their base pursuing the action everyone expects them to take. Republicans will. This was a shockingly stupid political move to say the least.


FearTheReaper is a writer, actor and stand up comedian. Check back each Tuesday, Thursday and Saturday for more from FearTheReaper and read his blog, Stop All Monsters.

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Comments
jatibb

jatibb

I'm lost
February 2007

DEC 16, 2008 06:20 AM

god bless america.... and foreign auto companies
hopefully the reps will get their just reward, but we all know if they do theyll give themselves bonuses to show for it

Kouvre

Kouvre

Moline, IL
April 2006

DEC 16, 2008 07:51 AM

FearTheReaper said:
Bush will do the right thing


eeek

Wow, I never thought a situation would ever come up where those words were actually necessary to publish.

Accuser

Accuser

Scottsdale, AZ
October 2006

DEC 16, 2008 08:13 AM

Why is it that we think Bush will make the more informed choice?

rottentothecore

rottentothecore

United Kingdom
December 2008

DEC 16, 2008 08:19 AM

Kouvre said:

FearTheReaper said:
Bush will do the right thing


eeek

Wow, I never thought a situation would ever come up where those words were actually necessary to publish.



Neither did i =/

Adroitbeing

Adroitbeing

I'm lost
September 2003

DEC 16, 2008 08:42 AM

What a sad state of affairs, with one exception; Republicans are finally receiving the "cred" they deserve.

Just days before entering negotiations with Bush and Democrats (never thought I would say that!), Republicans circulated their talking points where they made it clear that the issue at hand, the opportunity to attack organized labor was far more important than the auto makers or the economy.
Republican Memo

The fact that wages and benefits for current workers represents only about 10% of the cost of making a vehicle seems to be lost on the Republicans, especially Bob Corker - whose resume includes running a construction firm, where labor costs are much higher as a percentage of total costs.

The fact that "legacy" benefits (pensions, healthcare, etc to retired autoworkers) comprises 21% of the gross labor costs is also lost on Republicans, and perhaps most Americans. I wonder if so many Americans would oppose the auto industry "bailout" (hate that word), if they too were being asked to give up their pensions while already retired and dependent on that income. Cal me a cynic, but I will bet not.

However, the effects of the problem are already coming to roost:


  • Special Devices, Inc; a manufacturer of the devices used to initiate airbags filed Chapter 11 today

  • Precision Parts International, a maker of auto parts, filed Chapter 11 last week

  • Delphi Corp has had to make unique arrangements to keep financing its operations during bankruptcy - and it's running out of options (Delphi employs 150,000+

  • 6 other auto-related manufacturing companies have been placed on "rating watch negative" by Fitch Ratings

DJMenace

DJMenace

Upland, CA
October 2007

DEC 16, 2008 10:59 AM

It is criminal the way the Republicans are acting. Like a spoiled infant, they are throwing a tantrum because they didn't get thier way (they lost the presidency, the house and the senate). It is shameful that they want to take us backwards 100 years, by breaking the unions. The auto industry is not perfect, they were just reacting to republican principles these last 8 years (fuel economy standards rolled back, emission controls rolled back, big oil interests). It is ridiculous that they gave up 700 billion with very little oversight to banks, and refuse to give up 2% of that total to the auto industry. Anyone who still thinks the republicans care about anything other than big business and corporations, is either ignorant or stupid.
Wake up America! mad

vampiresoldier

vampiresoldier

Oakland, CA
March 2004

DEC 16, 2008 11:18 AM

Kouvre said:

FearTheReaper said:
Bush will do the right thing


eeek

Wow, I never thought a situation would ever come up where those words were actually necessary to publish.



Not only that, but coming out of FearTheReaper!!!!!

But to the point at hand, i wonder if the CEO's of the auto companies look at their "salaries" and see that what they make could pay for almost 1000 workers. It irritates me that we the tax payers have to put up with the bill for companies that aren't well run, put out a sub standard product and say it is the worker's fault.

I never thought that i wish a movie by Jim Carey would come true, but wouldn't it be great if Fun with Dick and Jane would actually happen? I would really love to see the CEO's faces...

motorfirebox

motorfirebox

Pittsburgh, PA
March 2004

DEC 16, 2008 11:22 AM

i take this as indisputable proof that FTR has been skrulled.

(and i take the fact that i originally said "ineffable" instead of "indisputable" as proof that i need more than 2 hrs of sleep.)

DannyDMc

DannyDMc

Fargo, ND
July 2003

DEC 16, 2008 12:06 PM

Accuser said:
Why is it that we think Bush will make the more informed choice?



Legacy, pretty much. The very same reason that Cheney warned Republicans that, if they didn't vote for the bailout, it would be "Hoover time". Pretty much, if the auto industry collapses on this administration's watch, they are, believe it or not, going to be remembered even LESS well than they currently are.
Its one of the reasons that George W. Bush has been supporting this bailout as strongly as he has.

RandomNerd

RandomNerd

I'm lost
January 2005

DEC 16, 2008 12:20 PM

DannyDMc said:

Accuser said:
Why is it that we think Bush will make the more informed choice?



Legacy, pretty much. The very same reason that Cheney warned Republicans that, if they didn't vote for the bailout, it would be "Hoover time". Pretty much, if the auto industry collapses on this administration's watch, they are, believe it or not, going to be remembered even LESS well than they currently are.
Its one of the reasons that George W. Bush has been supporting this bailout as strongly as he has.



You know, not for nothing, but Hoover didn't cause the Great Depression, he was a man of limited imagination at a time that called for radical change. So although he didn't do enough to ameliorate it, the depression wasn't really his fault. Harding and Coolidge were the people that passed the time bomb off to him.

The Bush administration, on the other hand, has its fingerprints all over this mess. But their timing was off. They probably hoped the economy would start crumbling at the start of the 44th President's administration (in the event a Republican won, why would Bush care? He's set for life and never needs to run for office again.) I still fear that Obama will take the blame for the situation just because he can't pull rabbits out of his hat.

*edit: As Secretary of Commerce, I don't know how much actual regulatory power Hoover might have had -such power may have fell to the Attorney General, and it was During the Roosevelt administration that most of the Regulation we know (and Reagan and the Bushes hated) came into being. For some reason I had incorrectly assumed Hoover was Sec. of the Interior.

Trevallion

Trevallion

Murfreesboro, TN
February 2004

DEC 16, 2008 12:53 PM

FearTheReaper said:
Take the simple minded Tennessee Senator Bob Corker. Bobby believes the horrible unions should accept �parity� with workers from his state. By �parity� he means the workingman should make less, like in his state, where autoworkers of foreign car companies live with discriminatory, anti-labor laws designed to keep wages low. Notice Bob didn�t say this about Wall Street. He failed to mention the insane CEO salaries and ridiculous bonuses of the banking crowd. No, it�s the workingman getting ahead that is dragging our country down. Yes, we need workers to make less money. That is obviously the problem with the auto companies. I can see no other problems. None at all. Other than the horrible unions, the Big 3 put the A in awesome.



To be completely fair here, the Nissan factory in Smyrna, TN has so many concessions with the Tennessee labor relations board to keep unions out that they're not really much better off than if they didn't have a union. Nissan is a huge part of the economy where I live and they're pretty responsible about how they treat their employees most of the time. I can speak from personal experience that this isn't the case with the suppliers in the area. No one gives a shit about auto suppliers anyways, but that's not what I came here to say. It's ridiculous to suggest that auto workers in Michigan be paid the same as auto workers in Tennessee because Tennessee has some of the lowest cost of living and housing costs in the country, whereas Michigan is probably in the top 20.

Jace

Jace

San Francisco, CA
February 2004

DEC 16, 2008 01:31 PM

Trevallion said:

FearTheReaper said:
Take the simple minded Tennessee Senator Bob Corker. Bobby believes the horrible unions should accept �parity� with workers from his state. By �parity� he means the workingman should make less, like in his state, where autoworkers of foreign car companies live with discriminatory, anti-labor laws designed to keep wages low. Notice Bob didn�t say this about Wall Street. He failed to mention the insane CEO salaries and ridiculous bonuses of the banking crowd. No, it�s the workingman getting ahead that is dragging our country down. Yes, we need workers to make less money. That is obviously the problem with the auto companies. I can see no other problems. None at all. Other than the horrible unions, the Big 3 put the A in awesome.



To be completely fair here, the Nissan factory in Smyrna, TN has so many concessions with the Tennessee labor relations board to keep unions out that they're not really much better off than if they didn't have a union. Nissan is a huge part of the economy where I live and they're pretty responsible about how they treat their employees most of the time. I can speak from personal experience that this isn't the case with the suppliers in the area. No one gives a shit about auto suppliers anyways, but that's not what I came here to say. It's ridiculous to suggest that auto workers in Michigan be paid the same as auto workers in Tennessee because Tennessee has some of the lowest cost of living and housing costs in the country, whereas Michigan is probably in the top 20.


I don't think Michigan is faring much better than Tennessee. I don't have any hard numbers to attest, but my girlfriend is from a rural suburb of Lansing and I've been there recently. It's pretty downtrodden. I wouldn't be so quick to assume that Michigan is in the top 20 places to live in the country. But this is sort of a tangential point.

DannyDMc

DannyDMc

Fargo, ND
July 2003

DEC 16, 2008 01:50 PM

Jace said:

Trevallion said:

FearTheReaper said:
Take the simple minded Tennessee Senator Bob Corker. Bobby believes the horrible unions should accept �parity� with workers from his state. By �parity� he means the workingman should make less, like in his state, where autoworkers of foreign car companies live with discriminatory, anti-labor laws designed to keep wages low. Notice Bob didn�t say this about Wall Street. He failed to mention the insane CEO salaries and ridiculous bonuses of the banking crowd. No, it�s the workingman getting ahead that is dragging our country down. Yes, we need workers to make less money. That is obviously the problem with the auto companies. I can see no other problems. None at all. Other than the horrible unions, the Big 3 put the A in awesome.



To be completely fair here, the Nissan factory in Smyrna, TN has so many concessions with the Tennessee labor relations board to keep unions out that they're not really much better off than if they didn't have a union. Nissan is a huge part of the economy where I live and they're pretty responsible about how they treat their employees most of the time. I can speak from personal experience that this isn't the case with the suppliers in the area. No one gives a shit about auto suppliers anyways, but that's not what I came here to say. It's ridiculous to suggest that auto workers in Michigan be paid the same as auto workers in Tennessee because Tennessee has some of the lowest cost of living and housing costs in the country, whereas Michigan is probably in the top 20.


I don't think Michigan is faring much better than Tennessee. I don't have any hard numbers to attest, but my girlfriend is from a rural suburb of Lansing and I've been there recently. It's pretty downtrodden. I wouldn't be so quick to assume that Michigan is in the top 20 places to live in the country. But this is sort of a tangential point.



I don't think he was saying that Michigan was one of the top twenty places to live in the country; I think he was saying that it had one of the top twenty highest cost of living in the country.

Adroitbeing

Adroitbeing

I'm lost
September 2003

DEC 16, 2008 02:57 PM

Trevallion said:

To be completely fair here, the Nissan factory in Smyrna, TN has so many concessions with the Tennessee labor relations board to keep unions out that they're not really much better off than if they didn't have a union. Nissan is a huge part of the economy where I live and they're pretty responsible about how they treat their employees most of the time. I can speak from personal experience that this isn't the case with the suppliers in the area. No one gives a shit about auto suppliers anyways, but that's not what I came here to say. It's ridiculous to suggest that auto workers in Michigan be paid the same as auto workers in Tennessee because Tennessee has some of the lowest cost of living and housing costs in the country, whereas Michigan is probably in the top 20.



A lot has been written about the differences in wages. If you are interested, visit FactCheck or if you have a subscription, NYT.

Current Detroit unionized autoworkers earn about $55 per hour, which includes approximately $15/hr for benefits. Honda and Toyota employees by contrast earn $45 per hour, including benefits. The difference is comprised primarily of benefits (health insurance, pension, etc). Wages reach parity in 2010 at about $45/hr.

Alfaduetto

Alfaduetto

Greeneville, TN
May 2004

DEC 16, 2008 07:28 PM

Back when I was still voting for Republicans, I didn't vote for Corker, he is a complete idiot. I think his mother was his primary endorsement during the campaign. Cost of living is 30% from TN to MI. My company tried to move me there for an 11% increase and I stayed in TN. MI has ridiculous tax problems not wage problems. The 30 % I needed to move was solely related to taxes, income and property, not daily expenses.

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