Auto Hearings, House Version
Two and a Half and their UAW dude are back on the Hill. Here’s a link. Spencer Bachus has already deemed that, because UAW workers make more than other American citizens, the Big 2.5 can’t get a bailout.
He neglected to explain, of course, why he had given a bailout to all the people making billions on Wall Street.
Sigh.
Congressman Ackerman: You’re responsible for the state of the auto industry. (Um, except that two out of four people in front of you–Nardelli and Mulally–weren’t IN the auto industry when its problems were caused.)
Ron Klein: Suggests a Manhattan Project to develop the best automotive technologies. Nardelli jumps on it (not least bc Chrysler has the least in the pipeline on technologies). Wagoner agrees–notes that other countries do this. "If we want to move this country to leadership, this kind of collaboration is going to be a basic aspect."
Gwen Moore: Ding ding ding!! We need a national health care plan. Why did you stop short of saying that this kind of initiative would help our industry?
Damn. Barney just interrupted Wagoner in the middle of explaining how, if Congress raised gas taxes, then the Big 2.5 could make more efficient cars.
Barney points out that since the UAW has forestalled payment on the VEBA, it opens up the opportunity to solve national health care and avoid that payment. Raises the lower costs in Canada, as compared to Detroit. Scolds them for not helping Clinton on national healthcare.
Shelly Capito says her dad used to drive a Chrysler station wagon called the "Chick Wagon." Barney says he doesn’t mind her mentioning it, but that he would never want to drive it.
Marcy, I am not sure if it just me, but the link did not work for me. Quicktime opens and then nothing.
It worked for me. my computer associates that file type with windows media player.
Try it from this site–or CSPAN.
What is it with these rubes from Alabama? The stupid really does burn. Funny, I don’t remember Bachus or any of the others making these demands and being so ignorant about salary discrepancy with the Wall Street Robber Barons that waltzed in and left with a trillion of so dollars.
Hey Rep. Baucus (R-Dumbfuckland), know what the average salary of a Goldman Sachs employee, including even line level secretaries and bathroom attendants? $521,000.00 per year.
I was going to make a comment about a working wage, but you made my point better.
Don’t you know, their state motto is, “Thank god for Mississippi or we would be last”
bmaz, I lived in Alabama for almost 20 years and in all honesty, it has a lot more going for it than Arizona does, and my forebears were AZ pioneers.
Sometimes you just go off half cocked. When you tone it down, it makes for a lot more congenial conversation.
I am about ten minutes behind you. Got it working.
Hey, NASA is one big R&D project. He’s from FL…
Shelby is coming from a Whole Different Perspective than the Rest of US, which explains his Policy Quirks.
In Alabama, Tornado Damage is Taxed as a Home Improvement.
Hey Senator Shelby and Rep. Baucus, how is it that your state ranks 49th among the 50 states in public education, but have the highest paid college football coach (at a state university) in the country (Nick Saban makes 4-5 million a year including incentives.)
It’s because their most popular Major is Pride, which doesn’t really have all that much to do with Edumacashun.
Because they give away big tax incentives to foreign automakers who don’t pay property tax into school funds?
http://www.goodjobsfirst.org/c…..plants.cfm
Gee, you would AL was the only state to give tax breaks to business.
Here in AZ, it got so bad in Phoenix that we (in a Repug state) actually passed a law to prevent municipalities from giving more tax breaks:
http://www.newrules.org/retail/vetoarizona.html
You’re right to stand up for Alabama. It’s the arguments by Alabama’s representatives in the hearing they we should take issue with.
Also fair game are facts about Alabama that weigh against their arguments, preferably facts that are indicative of the broader picture rather than singular facts that may not be representative.
Here’s the thing. We can see the Alabma rep’s are pursuing a political argument to make their case for the way they will vote, not necessarily an argument that goes to the principles and interests their evaluation involves. Why shouldn’t commenters here be able to do the same, make the political counter-arguments that you find a little insulting?
Seems to me education is fair game. Alabama AND MI have lost out on new factories of late: AL, because education levels are insufficient, and MI, because health care is too expensive. Voila! Canada, with its excellent education and health care get the jobs.
skdadl heard the batcall, and she is here to say, as usual, that you give us too much credit, especially at teh moment.
I’ve been following along these past few days, honestly I have, but most of us up here are just totally wrung out by Harper’s shenanigans this week. We haven’t lost the war, but yesterday we kind of lost one battle (the governor general agreed to prorogue Parliament until 26 January, which saves Steve from being defeated in the Commons … for now).
You might well think that that date is more than a coincidence. Many of us do.
Anyway, we got trouble, and it’s not clear that we’re going to get out of it any time soon. Harper is still publicly in denial about the economic crisis, although it has begun to hit hard here, and on top of that he seems to be channelling Michelle Bachmann and Sarah Palin on the turf of who is a real Canadian and who isn’t.
So anyway, it has been like that. Sorry for going so far O/T. Miss y’all very much.
Neil, and you believe there are actually some politicians that don’t make “a political argument to make their case for the way they will vote, not necessarily an argument that goes to the principles and interests their evaluation involves”? WOW, either I am way too cynical or you are way too naive.
I don’t mind arguments based on facts, or even those with some emotions involved. What I do find reprehensible are referring to people as ‘rubes’ or to sovereign states as ‘Dumbfunkland’.
Particularly from someone (as I am)represented by stellar Senators named Kyl and McCain.
Anything but education. Athough, I will have to agree with Former Fed that Arizona has had an issue with being far too generous in the way of tax breaks to corporations that wanted to come here anyway (especially high tech manufacturing who needed the dry stable climate in the first place and have literally taken our local governments to the cleaners). The result is our education system is better than Alabama’s, but not by that much really. Pretty pitiful on both counts.
I missed who this woman is–but she’s very smart.
Small businesses are a large part of the supply chain Mr. Hensarling.
Oh, gee and the financial industry doesn’t lobby at all.
CAR has a great end of life cycle data (ELV) table. I’ll try to find it.
“With all due respect, Rep Baucus, “you’re delusional.”
Just heard clueless fucking Bush on the crises… said nothing, took
no questions, and went back to work out the details on his $2M home.
Christ these people are stupid.
Thank God someone addressed the elephant in the room!
Thank you Jane!
With teh exception of Corker and Shelby yesterday, I was suprised by the degree to which the Senators had done their homework and were beginning to get it.
Not so the Congressmen and women.
Would hate to see the blog world lose you in any kind of way. But would sure like to see your intellect and insights added to those in the system who push for justice and rule of law in congress. Leahy, Sherrod Brown, Lincoln Chaffee (no longer there) etc.
Senator Hamsher has a nice ring to it.
Barney Frank is bringing up health care issue now at noon. mentions 1993 health care initiative by Clinton which was not backed by auto companies.
It would be nice if one of the (R) congress critters could explain where the bullets for their next war will come from if we continue to allow the destruction of the manufacturing base. Perhaps they believe our enemies will sell them to us. On credit.
Who was the Republican chap right before Kanjorski who asked “If we do this will you be viable”?
And what the fuck is up with Kanjorski? Jeebus.
IRT Small businesses. Here’s a suggestion to the southern Republicans…Give part of TARP to the small business administration to distribute to the states for small business $$$ “floats”.
And btw, can someone shut-up the women talking in the background..Annoying as all get out.
EW @ 21. I agree. It burns me to be Joe Citizen, not being paid by tax dollars, knowing I could go into this hearing and ask thoughtful, solution-based questions.
Baloney Maloney…where was your “lawless” lobby arguement when the financial industry was lobbying against regulatory measures that would have protected the health of tax payer investments (i.e. retirement funds).
Finally, someone picked up the fact that we would be throwing away green technologies. EW, your MI reps MUST be reading here…Finally, the reverse stimulus reality gets walked out logically.
My real beef is with Shelby and Baucus; if you think either one of them has exhibited any particular intelligence here, then we shall have to disagree. When I said rubes it was them I was directly referring too. If your beef is the “Dumbfuckland”, fair enough, perhaps that is a joke I should not have made and I retract that. I have several friends from Alabama, have been there and enjoyed it immensely.
For the proposition that Alabama has anything on Arizona, I will fight that till my death. Quite frankly, I don’t even think their vaunted football Bear Bryant teams could have beaten a Frank Kush era ASU team. Kush was friends with Bryant and relentlessly tried to get the Tide to schedule the Devils, but Bryant refused in favor of playing non-conference patsies. Certainly the Tide are better now; of course we don’t have 5 million dollars a year to slather on a bought and paid for hired assassin coach.
Who got Altman on here?
News from Montgomery, AL, now at rawstory about the Siegelman case with an interesting tidbit:
“In light of recent information from a new whistle-blower in the Bush Justice Department , political prosecutions still under investigation by Congress …has re-opened the investigation.”
Correction – the article does not say that the new informer is currently at the DOJ. It is a new informer in other open investigations but there is no information about which ones or who the new informer is.
Hahahah that is easy to fix then. Sens. McCain and Kyl (Rs – New Dumbfuckland). My state earned that all the way for electing these two pernicious jerks. I do think Shelby and Baucus are rubes; never intended that to be a statewide assignation to all Alabama residents.
bmaz, fair enough. Let’s work like Hell to get some new senators.
Then we can trade insults over our football teams!!!
Sachs speaks the true reality. The only reason the Fed won’t come to the table is probably because Paulson’s buddies are benefiting from the talk of bankruptcy.
Frank must have picked up comments here on his break…
I found something more full of BS that the House hearings. OJ sentenced to 15 years in prison for that penny ante trumped up crap in Las Vegas is beyond absurd.
lol. i had just asked myself about an hour ago “wonder if bmaz thinks this is as b.s. a case as it appears to be.”
and that Judge just did not make any sense at all. What the hell was she saying there at the closing?
“Damn. Barney just interrupted Wagoner in the middle of explaining how, if Congress raised gas taxes, then the Big 2.5 could make more efficient cars.”
Yup, gas never needs to be cheaper than $3.00/gal, if not then nothing is ever going to advance. Ethanol (bad idea anyway) companies are going bankrupt because gas is so cheap no one except the mandated are using it. Ford F-150 pickup production is already picking up steam because hey, gas is ‘cheap’.
Is the House pitching Sachs as a member of the oversight with Zandi?
Sachs…key words, “Preserve value.” No bankruptcy talk.
My long time friend and Chrysler co-worker called me today. He woke up at 3am, couldn’t sleep, sat down and wrote a long letter to Shelby. Of the many things he said, I particularly liked the part where he called him anti-American for supporting Japanese companies over American, referencing all the info from yesterday concerning incentives. The other part where he referenced how out-of-work, screwed autoworkers could get ugly and knew where Alabama was, seemed a bit over the top but satisfying somehow. I told him I would wait patiently for the FBI interview surely to come.
But, as we spoke, I wondered how satisfied Shelby’s constituents will be when the UAW’s new wage structure comes into effect ($14/hr) and the transplants lower all the non-union scales to match. Could be a lack of foresight on his part? It’s coming, bailout or not…
(my bold)
Or how about how his constituents and other Congresscritters constituents should a bailout not happen because of his yap and the dollar tanks big time? The foreign plants will move to Mexico ASAP. Especially, since a number of the Mexican work force once in the US has had to go back to Mexico because of the US economy being so bad. Cost of living per day in Mexico $12-$14 US dollars. Talk about cheap labor. I wont even begin to mention how cheap land is.
Ah, Alabama, the state that paid a quarter-billion in
bribesincentives for Mercedes to set up its assembly plant. The state that exists so that Georgia has someone to joke about.Thanks ew.
digg
Jeff Sachs was very good. Shame nobody was listening.
Not quite off-topic, James Fallows does a fascinating interview with China’s official investment manager. I find very little that the guy says that I would disagree with. He certainly sounds more realistic than Hank Paulson.
I have seen a video interview with that guy. It was on 60 Minutes. He is pretty impressive and pretty forthright. We could use that guy on this side of the Pacific.