Auto bailout = April bankruptcy instead of January; Yippie!
Picture a reservoir inside of a dam. There are multiple rivers flowing into the reservoir, but a leak has sprung in the dam, and the amount of water coming out the leak greatly exceeds the amount coming in from the rivers. Over the years the surface level of the reservoir gets lower and lower til there’s almost nothing left.
To fix the problem, local officials decide they’re going to take a huge amount of water from another reservoir and refill this one. The level of the reservoir is raised and the local environmentalists cheer.
You cannot fix American car companies by giving them money because it doesn’t FIX THE LEAK. Handing them some money to survive for a few months is no different than taking $17 billion and throwing it in a fireplace. That money will go right out the leak and you’ll be right where you started, problem unsolved.
You idiots who think we HAVE to save American car companies so that the Japanese don’t win… my Nissan Altima was made in Tennessee and my father-in-law’s Dodge Ram was made in Mexico. So who is more supportive of American auto workers?
For the record, bankruptcy does not mean the end of American car companies. It means the end of astronomically high compensation for American car company workers. A bunch of people will be fired and they need to be. If you want the company to survive, they must drastically restructure everything, especially their union contracts. Giving the car companies a lump sum of money does nothing but delay the bankruptcy I and others are calling for now. They will go bankrupt when the $17 billion runs out anyway, so get it over with.
Hotair.com article on the auto bailout