This is simply a no brainer. Most Americans recognize it for what it is: political pandering and barely disguised graft.

Republicans should make this a major campaign issue in 2010.

Somewhere there is a political consultant that can reduce to a few sentences the message (less than 30 seconds) that this bailout is nothing more than a tariff. Demographically this message should saturate markets where local industries benefit from foreign owned plants.

And before someone shows up with the rebuttal that governments of foreign manufacturers subsidize their own operations to the detriment of the U S, it bears repeating that the relative value of jobs created in the US by BMW, Toyota and Nissan far outweigh the foreign exchange advantage of labor subsidies by foreign competitors.

I hope that the Republicans do filibuster the bailout and make it a major campaign issue for 2010. The Big 3 shouldn't be given the money. They can go into bankruptcy and emerge leaner and stronger. If they can't emerge from bankruptcy this way, then they were doomed to failure anyway.

I don't buy their scare tactics about losing jobs. If people completely stop buying their cars, this means that they are buying other manufacturer cars. If the other car maker's sales goes up, then they will have to hire people. There will be jobs, just not the very high paying ones that the Big 3 employees make.

This whole bailout thing stinks to me.

Therese, that's false. Toyota's manufacturing employees in Ontario earn nearly what union autoworkers make and don't have to pay union dues. Provided they're willing to pick up and move, useful UAWorkers will still be able to find work without suffering a long-term decline in standard of living, though it could be a painful few years waiting for the dust to settle. In the meantime they could hatch all kinds of plots, like writing "ASSHOLE" on Wagoner's private jet using a key to a Hyundai Elantra.

hypeBSolist - "Therese, that's false. Toyota's manufacturing employees in Ontario earn nearly what union autoworkers make and don't have to pay union dues.

Instinct told me this was a line of Happy Horseshit.

Instinct born of 28 years living in Detroit, 10 spent working at a Ford assembly outside the city and having a general knowledge of Toyota's Canadian operations.

Toyota, just last week, opened its second assembly plant in Canada that employs only 1200.

They employ such a small number as compared to those that have jobs in the southern tier of the U.S. (almost exclusively non-union) to even make ANY type of comparison is laughable.

The transplants Assemble on average only half o the what is sold here of those specific models. Assembly represents 1/4 or less of the process of making car.

Assuming that they will actually come or even stay here, you're trading 8 for 1. Silly me but doesn't see that as a deal.

The reality is the loss of the infrastructure that supports the Big 3 will actually make operating those transplants more expensive. Also the political leverage those transplants provide will decrease substantially in value without a Big 3. So someone's engaging in wishful thinking if they think a loss of marketshare to the imports will be offset in any significant way that would preserve American industry by transplants. That would be at best. At worst, with the exception of an initial first few years of double and triple shifts to meet the shortage, those transplants will start to quietly scale down their scope.

No bailout.
It was wrong to bailout the banks and it wrong to bailout the automakers. Let them file chapter 11, let them reduce cost of labor, and benefits to non workers. They need to downsize and work on their business plan free of government intervention. Name one major project that the federal government has produced that has come in on time and under budget, Even great programs like DARPA net which became the internet did not become profitable till it was turned over to private industry.

(Private Jets) What is the operating cost on those jets vs. the health care cost of retired workers? Who many people are employed by those companies to maintain the jets what the cost benefit ratio of those planes. I mean other than PR I do not hear any hard facts. That why the bailout makes no sense what are we trying to achieve?

Companies are in business to make money. They provide goods and services that people are willing to pay for and they must provide those items at a cost that is profitable. If they cannot run at profit after a set period then they need to make changes to do that or go out of business. Government provide goods and services that the population requires such as common defense. These services must exist and are not subject to profit.

So having a government regulator oversee a private company is just bad news.

If the Republicans are stupid enough to filibuster this bill, the Democrats and their media enablers are going to hang every job loss in the next two years right-around-their-idiot-necks.

Sorry, but that's the the plain - not to mention *obvious* - fact.

Hcddbz -

"Name one major project that the federal government has produced that has come in on time and under budget"

Hoover Dam.

Admittedly, it was in the '30s. And they didn't allow union organizers on the work site, AND the companies contracted had hefty bonuses arranged for completing the work on or before the scheduled date. They took shortcuts with safety that wouldn't be acceptable today, but were pretty normal for the time.

After the bailout is finalized comes the hard part: convincing people that American cars are worth buying.

Sorry Sanssoucy, but that's not a fact, that's your opinion. If people can't see that we need to start holding people (CEOs, senators, union organizers, crooked politicians) responsible for what they do with other people's money, then they're blind enough to believe whatever the lefties in the media tell them. Personally, I'm looking for 2012 to be 1980 all over again. All we need to do is find our next Reagan. Not some wishy washy moderate, but a real conservative. Then maybe people could tell the difference.

"If the Republicans are stupid enough to filibuster this bill, the Democrats and their media enablers are going to hang every job loss in the next two years right-around-their-idiot-necks."

But it still may be worth it. Some of those Republican Senators will be joining the unemployed at the end of the week. If they kill the bailout, they have a chance of killing the UAW, a group that has confiscated billions from its members and only supports Democrat candidates. So this is the Republicans' big FU to the union. And don't worry. Obama's Marxist Congress will bail out the automakers in January when they blow another trillion or two of tax dollars on assorted bail outs.