Bailout Billionaires, Kill the Middle Class
We know how the bridge loan to automakers is being spent because the Bush administration made sure they only got aid after agreeing to tough stipulations.
So that accounts for $14.5 billion of our taxpayer money. But what about the rest of the $335.5 billion that went to Wall Street financial firms?
On “Morning Joe,” Joe Scarborough pointed out today that we do know how Wall Street spent $1.6 billion: on chauffeurs, company jets, home security, country club memberships and stock options.
Grinch McConnell Stole Autoworkers’ Christmas. Next Year, He Might Get Yours
The only items the Grinch stole from the good folks of Whoville were some jingtinglers, trumtookas and gardookas, along with their roast beast. But the Mitch who tried to steal Christmas from the autoworkers and their families was after a lot more serious loot—like health care, wages and their union cards.
In a new online campaign, “The Mitch Who Stole Christmas,” the California Nurses Association/National Nurses Organizing Committee (CNA/NNOC) says it’s time to tell Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) that according to our list, all he gets for Christmas is a lump of coal. McConnell is one of the leading anti-worker lawmakers who killed an emergency loan to keep afloat the nation’s automakers, along with more than 3 million U.S. jobs.
CNA/NNOC Co-President Geri Jenkins, RN, says McConnell may have been after UAW members and their union this time,
but tomorrow it will be other working people’s wages and benefits.
Did Senators Block Auto Loan Because of Employee Free Choice Act?
The Center for American Progress spelled out clearly today another reason for the Senate junta to block the emergency bridge loan to the auto industry: It was an advance attack on the Employee Free Choice Act. Crossposting the CAP piece here.
Last night, conservatives in the Senate blocked the proposed $14 billion loan to General Motors and Chrysler. As Ali Frick notes over at ThinkProgress, conservatives blamed the bill’s failure on the United Auto Workers (UAW) refusal to accept steep concessions—introduced in a pay-cut amendment by Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.)—that would have effectively neutered the union.
But various media outlets have reported that blocking the bill also had a wider purpose: sticking it to labor unions in advance of the anticipated debate over the Employee Free Choice Act. Often referred to as “card check,” the Free Choice Act would level the playing field for workers looking to form a union.
Job-Killing Republicans
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The senators who yesterday blocked the $14 billion bridge loan to the auto industry out of ideological hatred for unions and workers who make a middle-class living did so knowing that if the American auto industry collapsed, between 3 million and 5 million jobs would be killed.
Think Progress documents the extent to which these Republicans are willing to go to fulfill their visceral hatred for America’s middle class and unions. A memo sent among Senate Republican staffers on the auto loan negotiations called for Republicans to “stand firm and take their first shot against organized labor.”
10 Reasons to Support the U.S. Auto Industry
Chances are the upcoming holiday get-togethers will provide plenty of encounters with relatives and friends who are against helping out the auto industry. Opponents of a bridge loan have plenty to say. And we should, too. Here’s a quick list of reasons for countering arguments by Uncle CEO and Cousin It.
1. Unlike the taxpayer giveaway to Wall Street, the funds for the auto industry are loans. These loans have to be paid back. The Big Banks who got our $700 billion get to keep it.
2. It’s cheaper to support the auto industry than to let it die. Anderson Economic Group and BBK Ltd. determined that over a two-year period, a $30 billion bridge loan with only half of the amount repaid would result in a $16.4 billion cost to taxpayers in lost sales, taxes and jobs, while a bankruptcy would cost $65.9 billion when costs for pensions, unemployment insurance, loan losses and professional and other fees are added.
