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On the very day that Barack Obama announced new fuel
efficiency and emissions limits for American cars, Reuters reported
that when General Motors goes bankrupt it would be selling its best
asset to … Barack Obama.
Fair is fair.
If Obama owns GM he can tell them what kinds of cars to
build, at what prices they should be sold, how many seats the UAW
should have on their board of directors, and just about anything else
he thinks of while eating his morning bran flakes.
From Wikipedia:
In 1953, Charles Erwin Wilson, then GM president, was named by President Dwight Eisenhower as Secretary of Defense.
When he was asked during the hearings before the Senate Armed
Services Committee if as secretary of defense he could make a decision
adverse to the interests of General Motors, Wilson answered
affirmatively but added that he could not conceive of such a situation
"because for years I thought what was good for the country was good for
General Motors and vice versa."
After what we learned yesterday, in a very real sense: What's good for General Motors IS America.
According to the Reuters piece, the government will
extend a line of credit to the company it owns, and will forgive the
$15.4 billion in loans it has already provided to the company it owns.
If you own something, it just makes sense to forgive the debt to
yourself.
Obama will be able to hire and fire executives; decide
which dealerships can remain and which must close; how much union
workers (and everyone else) should be paid; how much suppliers can
charge, and everything else that goes along with owning a major
manufacturing company.
He will also determine how much, if anything private
lenders - banks and bondholders - will get when GM goes belly-up.
Forget about that pesky, quaint business about the sanctity of
contracts. That was the old way. This is the new way. This is the OBAMA
WAY!
If "change" is what America voted for last November, then "change" is what we're getting.
At some point someone is going to file a suit in
Federal court asking for clarity as to just where in the U.S.
Constitution it is provided that the Executive Branch can buy a
bankrupt car company.
Actually, this might be a good thing for Republicans.
When a faceless corporation - or worse yet - a faceless and heartless
bankruptcy court - closes down thousands of dealerships in thousands of
towns, it's hard to know where to aim your ire.
When the support for the local Jaycees, or the high
school cheerleaders, or local churches, or any other of the dozens of
local charities and organizations which benefit from help that car
dealerships provide in the way of advertising, donations, and being a
local community's best corporate citizen vanishes; to whom do you send
the angry e-mail?
Now we know. The Owner: Barack Obama.
After Barack Obama takes control of GM, you should
Twitter him and tell him what you think about closing your local
dealership. Or send him an Instant Message on his Blackberry. Or just
call the White House: 202-456-1414.
SIDEBAR
Lest you think giving out the phone number to the White
House switchboard is devulging a closely-held secret, it's not. It's on
the Whitehouse.gov website.
END SIDEBAR
You think closing military bases have an impact on
the comfort zone of Members of the U.S. House and the U.S. Senate? Wait
until Mayors and County Commissioners figure out the number of people
who will lose their jobs and how much property tax revenue will
disappear.
Wait until local newspapers and radio stations total
up the advertising dollars which will evaporate and the toll on their
employees. See how long the media's love affair with Barack Obama, the
owner of General Motors, lasts.
I think it would be a good idea for every town losing
a dealership to mount a phone-call campaign to their Member of Congress
and ask what they intend to do to reverse that decision.
The number of the Capitol switchboard is: 202-225-3121. When they answer, ask for your Congressman. They'll connect you.
I know absolutely nothing about the automobile
business. I've never understood any part of it. On those rare occasions
when I have purchased a car, I walked in; saw something I liked; made
an offer; paid what they asked for; and assumed I'd been taken
advantage of.
But, at the end of the transaction, I had the car I
wanted and the dealer got the price he or she wanted. And I always had
the option of walking out.
Now that every GM dealership is going to be owned by
the Federal government, you might not just have to haggle over the
price; you might well have to explain to the on-site IRS agent just how
you can afford that new, shiny, 30-miles-per-gallon Obamamobile on the
crappy salary you've been reporting for the past five years?
What's good for General Motors is good for … nothing.
On the Secret Decoder Ring
today: A link to the Reuters piece about Obama buying General Motors.
Also a pair of photos from the Press Box at Nationals Park on Saturday
night and a Catchy Caption of the Day which might mean an end to Beach
Volleyball. --END--
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