Enough is enough: just say "No!" to the auto or any other bailout.

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Folks, do you FEEL "bailed out?"

I don't.

The auto industry is no more deserving then any other industry of government bailout funds.

NO business should have the ability to tap into the treasury so they can continue the bizarre, out of touch policies that got them and us into this situation in the first place.

Like our government, the same group of morons that got us into this are somehow expecting us to believe they'll get us out of it.

We've already set aside to waste $850 billion in taxpayer monies with hundreds of billions more to come... again, if administered by ANYONE, they'll be administered by the same tone-deaf idiots that got us into this trouble to begin with.

The first bail out was a terrible idea. McCain was a bufoon for supporting that effort, and our government will reach new heights of moronic achievement if they go along with this effort.

After all, was it just me, or did those dolts fly into DC a few days back in Learjets? And then, just a few days ago, they were begging for $25 billion. Now, a few days later, they demand $34 billion?

When would it end? What do they do when this money runs out, as it inevitably would? Does anyone believe they won't be back, over and over and over again? When would it end?

Never. The fact is that like buying a new car itself with no downpaynment, you're buried in it the moment you drive it off the lot.

And with every billion we waste on an auto company bail out, our ability to let these clowns fail becomes less and less. In short, the more cash we flush down the bail out dumper, the more cash we'll HAVE to flush down the dumper, to avoid the allegation that we wasted billions to begin with.

Will it hurt to let these businesses flounder? Of course it will. But it will hurt much less than the alternative, which is the wasting of hundreds of billions of dollars with a result of having absolutely nothing to show for it, which is what we have now.

That the primary basis for doing this is to pay back the auto worker's unions cannot be denied. Unfortunately, politics excuses nothing.

And wasting our money at such a violent rate; causing massive increases in our budget deficit that was OH such a BIG deal during the campaign but which now goes essentially unmentioned as our government determines how many thousands of dollars of indebtedness each of our children will have to bear for the entirety of their lifetimes, since this garbage is so expensive that our children and THEIR children will bear this burden for the duration of their lives.

And folks... there's something wrong with that.

Enough is enough. No more bailouts. Period. For anyone.
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So, when is enough, enough?

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I’m watching the auto makers attempting to join with the Wall Street crowd to scam the taxpayers out of billions.

When is enough, enough? What do we tell them when they come back in a few months? What do we say when they come back again and again and again?

I could join the choir and say something cryptic like, “when do I get MY bailout” but I am extremely fortunate not to need one. But there are many hundreds of thousands of small and medium businesses around this country that due… businesses that I would venture to say employ tens of thousands more people than the Big 3.

I support American manufacture (except all of the Big 3 have been manufacturing American market cars outside our borders for some time, now… so really, what, exactly IS an “American Car,” anyway?) of motor vehicles. But at least part of this concerns innovation, design and quality control.

Mini Cooper sales, for example, are up 30% year to year over last year.

So… how come Mini sales have skyrocketed while the Big 3’s have tanked? The Big 3 build small cars. Why aren’t they selling?

In the end, $25 billion won’t bail these people out. $250 billion won’t bail these people out.

What’s their business plan? Exactly how much money do these people have? Do they even HAVE a business plan? Is this like that idiotic $700 Billion bailout where promises were made, but then immediately violated?

In the end, what concessions are the unions willing to offer? I haven’t heard anything about that.

Would those people rather be laid off… or would they be willing to absorb a substantial pay/benefit cut?

Terrible cars. Bad marketing. Service that sucks. (Recently, for example, I went to Vancouver Ford for yet another recall on a sedan I own. They told me that it would take 45 minutes (it took two hours) and that they didn’t have one of the recall parts I needed (They’d have to order it and I would have to come back 2 weeks or so later) and even THEN they failed to fix one of the recall problems that caused me to bring it in the first place… and THEN they fudged the amount of time I was there on the work order, so that while I was there for 2 hours, the work order said I was there for something like 50 minutes… proving once again that figures don’t lie, but liars figure.)

Add that to design for parts and maintenance that would make a grown man weep… and have to be preformed on an increasing basis by factory technicians because no home wrench could hope to have the diagnostic equipment needed to tell the end user what the problem is.

They have to fail. Then we’ll see what we can get to rise from the ashes.
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Like a broken clock, the Columbian occasionally gets it right: Bailout Bad Idea

I don't frequently agree with The Columbian editorials. But when they get it right, they get it right... and this time, they got it right:



In Our View Nov. 16: Bailout Bad Idea
Propping up dinosaurs is not a good tactic

Sunday, November 16 2:00 a.m.

This week, members of Congress are expected to consider a bailout of U.S. automakers. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid has said the Senate will begin debate Monday on $25 billion in emergency loans and a test vote could be conducted on Wednesday. A bailout of U.S. automakers — at least as described so far in America’s murky economic crisis — would be a bad idea for at least five reasons:

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