The White House, President-Elect Obama and Congressional leaders, many of them Democrats, failed to win Senate approval for a financial bailout package to support the Big Three Automakers. - NY Times.
Republicans turned against their leader, President Bush, and his messengers last night and voted against the plan to offer up to $14 billion in taxpayer money to Ford, GM and Chrysler. Many of them, including Senators McConnell of Kentucky, DeMint of Ohio, Bob Corker of Tennessee and Richard Shelby of Alabama, cited the highly unionized workforce and their compensation plans as the source of their displeasure with the proposed bailout plan from the White House, etal.
One irony with their primary objection was that US workers at Toyota's plant in Georgetown, KY, the state Sen. McConnell represents, received higher total compensation from base pay and bonuses than their unionized colleagues in Michigan.
... Toyota Motor Corp. gave workers at its largest U.S.
plant bonuses of $6,000 to $8,000, boosting the average pay at the
Georgetown, KY, plant to the equivalent of $30 an hour. That compares
with a $27 hourly average for UAW workers... AfterMarket News, February 1, 2007
Sen. McConnell's Statement.
Another unstated irony, purely a coincidence, is the foreign carmakers have significant manufacturing operations in the states of...wait for it...Tennessee, Kentucky and Alabama.
Alabama is home to plants for Mercedes-Benz, Honda,
Hyundai and Toyota. Tennessee is getting a new Volkswagen plant and is
home to Nissan’s North American headquarters and other manufacturing
facilities.
Georgetown, Ky., in McConnell’s home state, is the site of Toyota’s biggest plant outside Japan. - Detroit Free Press
Nor, is the irony that many of these foreign car manufacturers have received assistance from the state and local governments that far exceeds on a per-employee basis the amounts now sought by the Big Three. The state of Tennessee alone has contributed over $500 million in tax breaks and direct assistance to Volkswagen in order to convince them to build a single plant in Chattanooga. Chattanooga Times Free Press. That plant would create 2000 jobs.
So, for $250,000 per employee in tax breaks and assistance, $500 million total...Tennessee would create 2,000 direct jobs.
State leaders have been out selling for Volkswagen, hoping to lure auto suppliers to build their plants in Tennessee. I wonder what incentives will be offered once the prospective supplier sees what incentives were given Volkswagen?
Compare that to the amount of the bailout bill, $14 billion, and the number of jobs directly connected to the Big Three and their parts suppliers. Over 830,000 jobs are created by the Big Three and the auto parts supplier industry. - NY Times.
- Over 230,000 are employed directly by the Big Three automakers. That means each of their jobs will cost us the taxpayer, $60,000 +/-, to save.
- Another 600,000 jobs exist with the auto parts suppliers.
- 230,000 + 600,000 = 830,000. 830,000 jobs are at stake with this bailout bill for the Big Three. And $14 billion is required to save them. Each of those jobs would cost $16,000 +/- to save.
Congress can create jobs for as little as $16,000 per job. The State of Tennessee creates them for...oh, say, $250,000 per employee.
Frankly, I think the state of Tennessee and its congressional delegation should look at the UAW and the Big Three for more cost-effective job creation programs.
Also, largely unnoticed is the preference of the UAW for the Democrats. The UAW and its PAC contributed...$1,918,450 this election cycle alone, to be exact -- into the
congressional campaigns of Democrats and only $12,500 into Republicans,
according to opensecrets.org - The Detroit News
Ah, yes. Revenge is sweet if served cold and your campaign coffers are filled with donations from your newest BFF.
Now, honestly, I don't think Congress should lecture anyone on business and finance. Under their leadership, our national debt will balloon...to numbers
that have no real meaning other than when these financial chickens come
to roost they're going to be HUGE ... and they're going to stay for a
long time.
Nor, do I think a Car Czar will work. If a national Czar would work, Russia would have kept its monarchy, the Soviet Union would never have existed, and we'd have a national drug policy that makes sense because it reduces the supply and consumption of illegal drugs.
On the other hand, I don't think it's fair, or smart, to punish the workers, union or not, by insuring their termination by our failing to act. You see, with no one to buy...who or what will drive our economy? And why?
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