GOP Senators to Middle Class: Drop Dead

Did the GOP learn anything from the last two elections?

Obviously not.

The deal to give Detriot’s big three a 15 billion dollar loan, which by the way is peanuts compared to the 700 billion that the banks got, and they never had to make half the consessions compared to the hoops the auto-makers and the UAW are being asked to jump through. Not a single wage (not even CEOs) at the banks were touched for their bailout, so why is this standard being tolerated in this case? The CEO’s of the auto-industry still have their private planes, but the workers are the ones who have to take the cut. Why? They are not the poeple who made the bad decisions that caused the company to be run into the ground. Every CEO of the big three should be the ones getting the pink slip, but instead the workers will get it instead.

Why is the same Senate that gave almost a trillion dollars without any oversight or conditions to Wall Street now suddenly getting their panties in a bunch over $15 billion? Because this has now become more of a case of union busting than it has about fair negociation. The GOP is trying to use the bail out to stick it to the union, and is that really the message they want to send right now? They just got their asses handed to them for the second straight election, and I truly believe that screwing over the working man is only going to guarentee a third straight trouncing.

All of this by the way is still happening on King George’s watch, so any attempt to pin this on Obama or the Democrats will fail. If the big three fall and over three million people are laid off, this will fall on the shoulders of Boy George and the Senate Republicans. Forget 60, if they keep screwing the economy up even more than it already is… the Democrats have a chance to get 70 Senators in the next election cause a third straight ass whopping will be coming care of the middle class and the blue collar workers. Do they really want that? You’d think they do because screwing with this deal is playing with… forget fire, this is playing with molten lava. If the three fall, that could be enough to start a depression. Does the GOP really want to have that label hanging around their neck going into the mid-terms? That would guarentee another landslide for the Democrats in 2010.

We know for a fact that the GOP gunned down this bill for political reasons. Keith Olbermann recently revealed an ‘Auto Action’ Memo that was being passed around to Senate Republicans to defeat the Loan to the Auto Industry. In it, it details the GOP’s real motive to defeat the bill which was to take their ‘first shot at against organized labor’ … clear political, and selfish. Rather than put the good of the nation above their own interests, the GOP proved they care more about sticking it to their enemy more than they care about helping the US economy. And people are already affected by the GOP’s need to take shots at organized labor, a buddy of mine who works in a plant was given his lay off notice yesterday. He works in one of the 20 plants GM just announced they are shutting down, an annoucnement that came less than 24 hours after this bill was killed. They claim the close is temporary, but if no help comes they’ll stay shut down for a long time…

For the last two elections, what went around came back around to bite the GOP in the arse, big time. Don’t think for a second that this won’t come back to haunt them if the killing of this bill causes an economic disaster.

Peter

Senate to Middle Class: Drop Dead

Written by Michael Moore

Friends,

They could have given the loan on the condition that the automakers start building only cars and mass transit that reduce our dependency on oil.

They could have given the loan on the condition that the automakers build cars that reduce global warming.

They could have given the loan on the condition that the automakers withdraw their many lawsuits against state governments in their attempts to not comply with our environmental laws.

They could have given the loan on the condition that the management team which drove these once-great manufacturers into the ground resign and be replaced with a team who understands the transportation needs of the 21st century.

Yes, they could have given the loan for any of these reasons because, in the end, to lose our manufacturing infrastructure and throw 3 million people out of work would be a catastrophe.

But instead, the Senate said, we’ll give you the loan only if the factory workers take a $20 an hour cut in wages, pension and health care. That’s right. After giving billions to Wall Street hucksters and criminal investment bankers — billions with no strings attached and, as we have since learned, no oversight whatsoever — the Senate decided it is more important to break a union, more important to throw middle class wage earners into the ranks of the working poor than to prevent the total collapse of industrial America.

We have a little more than a month to go of this madness. As I sit here in Michigan today, tens of thousands of hard working, honest, decent Americans do not believe they can make it to January 20th. The malaise here is astounding. Why must they suffer because of the mistakes of every CEO from Roger Smith to Rick Wagoner? Make management and the boards of directors and the shareholders pay for this.

Of course that is heresy to the 31 Republicans who decided to blame the poor, miserable autoworkers for this mess. And our wonderful media complied with their spin on the morning news shows: “UAW Refuses to Give Concessions Killing Auto Bailout Bill.” In fact the UAW has given concession after concession, reduced their benefits, agreed to get rid of the Jobs Bank and agreed to make it harder for their retirees to live from week to week. Yes! That’s what we need to do! It’s the Jobs Bank and the old people who have led the nation to economic ruin!

But even doing all that wasn’t enough to satisfy the bastard Republicans. These Senate vampires wanted blood. Blue collar blood. You see, they weren’t opposed to the bailout because they believed in the free market or capitalism. No, they were opposed to the bailout because they’re opposed to workers making a decent wage. In their rage, they were driven to destroy the backbone of this country, not because the UAW hadn’t given back enough, but because the UAW hadn’t given up.

It appears that the sitting President has been looking for a way to end his reign by one magnanimous act, just like a warlord on his feast day. He will put his finger in the dyke, and the fragile mess of an auto industry will eke through the next few months.

That will give the Senate enough time to demand that the bankers and investment sharks who’ve already swiped nearly half of the $700 billion gift a chance to make the offer of cutting their pay.

Fat chance.

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