Geithner says it’s Wrong to Cap Bankers Bucks. It’s WROOOOONG!

by Scott Creighton

"It's wrong! WROOONG!"

Well, it’s official; there will be no caps set on the salaries of the CEO’s and top officials of the banks that received TARP funds.  That, according to Team DLC Obama™ Brand, would just be wrong. “It’s wrooong!”

Barack Obama is Not “the greatest man of our generation”

The Miracle of Chile comes to America

by Scott Creighton (reposted on March 12th 2012)

Recently I communicated with someone I knew from a previous life; back when I had a future.  This friend is a liberal and an accomplished artist who is committed to the craft of his work and the teaching of others who are lucky enough to learn from him.  “A Life in the Theater”; it was a noble ambition of mine but an achievement of his. And for that he deserves great respect.

In an advisory position, he once tried to get me to step outside myself, to look at a situation from a different perspective and to put aside my previous prejudices, my fears, and my anger just long enough that I may avert a pending disaster.  I tried but ultimately failed and thus a great turn took place in the direction of my life, the repercussions of which were immeasurable. Had I the wisdom or the openness to understand his warnings at the time, perhaps a different life would have been mine. Perhaps not.

But in so much as I should have heard the words of my then adviser and taken them to heart, for my sake as well as for those around me, I have to ask the same of that man now.

I have to ask that he hear not the anger, not the bitterness, not “political euphemisms” or “personal animosities” that make it altogether too easy to dismiss the validity of my claims and the claims of millions of others.

I have to ask of him what he did once of me;  just listen.

Barack Obama is not “the greatest man of our generation“.

What’s good for GM…

by Jerry White, WSWS

The bankruptcy of General Motors is a major turning point in the history of economic and political life in the United States.

The industrial giant—once the largest and most profitable enterprise in the world—defined American capitalism for much of the 20^th century. Its massive presence in the US economy inspired the famous 1953 remark by GM Chief Executive Charles Wilson: “What was good for the country was good for General Motors and vice versa.”

Obama administration targets the working class

by Patrick Martin, WSWS

In compelling GM to file for bankruptcy, Obama is giving the signal to all of corporate America to attack the jobs, wages, pensions and health benefits fought for by working people in the course of more than a century. The full power of the US government is being used to set an example of making the working class pay for the crisis of capitalism.

[read the rest, here]

Chrysler workers oppose more concessions

“He was a Trojan horse…”

For the woman at the end of the video, for her and all the UAW workers who don’t know what their future holds, I made the following cartoon when I read your comment “He was a trojan horse…” in an article at WSWS a couple days ago and I am re-posting it again today.

The Obama Horse!

Obama’s auto task force: a collection of Wall Street investors and asset strippers

by Jerry White, WSWS

President Obama’s auto task force has a March 31 deadline to approve updated restructuring plans by General Motors and Chrysler LLC under terms of the federal loan agreement. The task force—which has the power to revoke the loans and has not ruled out the use of the bankruptcy courts—is pressing for sharp reductions in the wages and benefits of autoworkers and a drastic downsizing of the auto industry.

General Motors to Invest $1 Billion in Brazil Operations — Money to Come from U.S. Rescue Program

Russ Dallen, Latin American Herald Tribune

General Motors plans to invest $1 billion in Brazil to avoid the kind of problems the U.S. automaker is facing in its home market, said the beleaguered car maker.

According to the president of GM Brazil-Mercosur, Jaime Ardila, the funding will come from the package of financial aid that the manufacturer will receive from the U.S. government and will be used to “complete the renovation of the line of products up to 2012.”

“Everyone is Going to Have to Give”; Obama™

by Scott Creighton

“…everybody’s going to have to have some skin in the game...”

Tomorrow, Obama™ is going on “This Week” with host George Stephanpoulosas part of Obama™’s product roll-out for his stimulus package, a.k.a. the Retro-Reaganomics Big-Business Give-away Plan.  There is a little teaser up on ABC’s site, written by ‘Poulosas himself.

During this interview, Obama™ is apparently going to try to channel your memories of JFK again, like he did in his first Bushesque infomercial for the plan last Thursday..

“…and insist that the first question each of us asks isn’t “What’s good for me?” but “What’s good for the country my children will inherit?” Obama™

And now, the original…

“And so, my fellow Americans: ask not what your country can do for you – ask what you can do for your country.

My fellow citizens of the world: ask not what America will do for you, but what together we can do for the freedom of man.” JFK

Pay cuts, layoffs mount in US

By Tom Eley,  WSWS

The US government loans to the auto industry, conditioned on a massive attack on the wages and jobs of auto workers, are being used as a spearhead for broader attacks on the working class throughout the country. This attack has already begun, with numerous companies recently announcing pay cuts and layoffs for the coming year in response to the deepening economic crisis.

(read the rest of the article, here.)

and It’s a Deal… “Just Give Us The Rest of the TARP”… Paulson

***UPDATE*** – As I predicted, it seems that they are using this auto-industry bailout to justify pushing for the rest of the TARP money.

Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson said Friday that Congress will need to release the last half of the $700 billion rescue fund …Paulson said the use of the rescue fund to provide loans to the auto industry along with all the other rescue efforts for the financial system meant that the administration has now basically allocated the first half of the largest government bailout program in history. MSNBC

(not to toot my own horn or anything… *toot*)

“…it is possible that these republican hold-outs are doing this in order to help the Bush administration get their hands on the second payment of the TARP money, after Bush’s appointees clearly squandered the first half… “   Dec. 13 2008, American Everyman

White House Auto Bailout plan totals some 17 billion dollars, coming from the original 350 billion of the TARP plan. This is a summary/bullet points break-down of that plan to be announced today. The auto workers lose the Jobs Bank, and they will have to be on par with the non-union auto-workers by end of this coming year. Notice they just mention “limits” on Exec. compensation, and that debts owed to the tax-payer are senior to those other debts “as allowed by law”… meaning there are ways around it.

The Auto Industry Bailout Failure Was Not A “Red VS Blue” Divide. It’s Worse Than That

by Scott Creighton

***UPDATE*** After watching Chris Dodd’s 1:00pm press conference this afternoon, I am suddenly struck with a different impression. It seems that, yes, certain republican Senators were demanding what they all called a “date certain” for the restructuring of the UAW pay and benefit plan to match those of the non-union workers in the southern states Toyota and Honda plants. A substantial financial hit they (the families of the workers)  would have to take sometime in March of next year. While the Dodd Plan would put that hit off till possibly 2011 or a little sooner, the sticking point turned out to be, like I explain below, that single issue.

But he (Dodd) suggested it may be more of a political ploy. Everyone is praising the Bush administration for offering to step up here and float the Auto industry with a loan from the TARP money. That’s all well and good if they do it with the remaining TARP funds from the first $350 billion dollar payment.

However; it looks like, from what Dodd was saying, the Bush administration is going to claim there isn’t enough left of that money, and so the Democratically controlled congress will have to hand over the other $350 billion dollars, now, in order to save the industry and keep these jobs.

If that is the case, it is possible that these republican hold-outs are doing this in order to help the Bush administration get their hands on the second payment of the TARP money, after Bush’s appointees clearly squandered the first half by handing it over to banks without the oversight they promised and without forcing the banks to use the funds to ease the credit freeze. And if so, they are literally holding the auto industry hostage to do it. If this is the case, this is the most blatant example of this administration creating another crisis and using it to further their corrupt agenda.

Original Story:

When is comes to yesterday’s failure of the proposed Auto Industry bailout plan, once again you are not getting the complete picture from the MSM; and there is a reason for it.

It is being reported by a few sources now that the final holdup on the deal wasn’t that the republicans wanted the workers to take reductions in wages that the democrats didn’t (both sides wanted the same reductions in wages and benefits from the workers), the only question left unresolved on the table, was “when?”.

“Both sides agreed wages should drop to the levels of foreign competitors, but Republicans wanted a deadline of 2009. Democrats insisted on a date of 2011, when current worker contracts expire.” Democracy Now

GM/Ford Bailout Deal is Union Busting Disguised as Corporate Welfare

by Scott Creighton

**UPDATE*** read:   The Auto Industry Bailout is NOT A Red VS Blue Divide. It’s Worse Than That

Perhaps it is just bad timing, or perhaps it foreshadows even more union busting to come, but just as the new Obama/Clintonista regime is taking shape, there is a new PR campaign underway to eviscerate one of the strongest labor unions in the U.S. And unfortunately it looks like they are going to win the approval of our “progressive” left simply because Obama is part of the sales team.