Car Companies About To Latch On To Government Teat

Here. We. Go. Again. Every taxpayer should be pissed, if they aren’t already. I talked about this just a week ago. The car companies want to get their hands on your money. From the Wall Street Journal:

Detroit’s political calculation is plain: Having seen the way Washington has bowed to rescue the mortgage industry and Wall Street, why shouldn’t auto makers give it a try? Michigan is up for grabs in the election, so now is the time to strike with a goal of getting the Bush Administration and both Presidential candidates to agree.

The car makers can also claim with justification to have been hurt as badly as anyone by Washington’s policy blunders. The weak dollar has contributed to the spike in oil prices that has socked their most profitable vehicles. And the nonsensical way that fuel-economy standards force Detroit to subsidize cars that consumers won’t buy has helped put the Big Three in this hole.

Then again, the car makers saddled themselves with a cost structure in flush times that has proved unsustainable as their market share has eroded. They have made great strides of late in shedding legacy pension and health-care costs, but they took decades to do so. The fact that GM’s lending arm, now 51% owned by the owners of Chrysler, dipped its toes in mortgage lending hasn’t helped either.

So, stupid government and stupid business leadership and taxpayers have to pick up the slack. No. The solution is painful and more long term: change the laws that hamstring the manufacturers, break the unions, reduce corporate taxes, get the government out of debt so that the dollar strengthens, create energy independence. Is there anything else? Bottom line, taxpayers are not a freaking money tree.

Posted in America • Show Me The Money
Tags: America • Capitalism • Economy • Money • Taxes