{"id":160,"date":"2008-12-19T15:42:03","date_gmt":"2008-12-19T15:42:03","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/cityofbrass\/2008\/12\/bush-bails-out-the-auto-indust.html"},"modified":"2008-12-19T15:42:03","modified_gmt":"2008-12-19T15:42:03","slug":"bush-bails-out-the-auto-indust","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2008\/12\/bush-bails-out-the-auto-indust.html","title":{"rendered":"Bush bails out the auto industry"},"content":{"rendered":"

The Republicans are furious with President Bush<\/a> for agreeing to use TARP funds to bail out the auto industry:<\/p>\n

Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), one of the architects of the $700 billion
\nWall Street bailout, thinks Bush may be skirting the Troubled Asset
\nRelief Program rules. <\/p>\n

“These funds were not authorized by Congress for non-financial
\ncompanies in distress,” Gregg said, “but were to be used to restore
\nliquidity and stability in the overall financial system of the country
\nand to help prevent fundamental systemic risks in the global
\nmarketplace.” <\/p>\n

McConnell said he realized the Bush auto bailout was coming, and is insisting more strings be attached. <\/p>\n

“I have strong objections to the use of Troubled Assets Relief Program
\n(TARP) funds for industry specific bailouts. And I do not support this
\naction,” McConnell said. “But since the administration has chosen to
\nuse these funds to aid the automakers, it is important that the
\ndate-specific requirements on all the stakeholders be enforced.” <\/p>\n

House conservatives are railing against the bailout, but it’s clearly too little too late. <\/p>\n

“Using TARP funds to bail out failing companies is incredibly risky and
\npoor public policy, and was not the designated intention of the program
\nwhen Congress approved it,” said Rep. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas), a
\nleading voice for House conservatives. “I fear that a devastating
\nprecedent has been set that the federal government will now be
\npressured to bail out every failing company in America — something that
\ntaxpayers and future generations cannot afford.” <\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Interesting how when it’s a middle class, blue-collar industry like the auto workers on the line, these Republicans fall over themselves to portray it as the end of the fiscal universe. But when it comes to big banks and financial executives, they sang a different tune. <\/p>\n

At any rate, House Republicans have only themselves to blame; they could have worked to pass the auto industry loan package – a package that was VERY strict indeed and used no new funds only re-allocated funds that the automakers were going to get anyway for various environmental initiatives. Instead the GOP scuttled that deal for essentially trivial quibbles over policy<\/a>: As Kevin Drum says,<\/p>\n

\n

This is nuts. If you’re just flatly against the bailout, fine. Vote
\nagainst it. But if the wage cuts, along with the debt-for-equity swap
\nthat was also part of the bill, were enough to bring you around, why
\nwould you cavil at the cuts happening in 2011 instead of the end of
\n2009? It’s only about an 18 month difference, and cutting wages makes a
\nlot more sense in 2011 than it does in the middle of a massive
\nrecession anyway.<\/p>\n

Another shining moment in the history of the modern GOP. Ideology uber alles.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

Given how petty their reasoning was in walking away from last week’s legislation, crying about using TARP funds now is just childish. This is why the Republicans are out of power and in the political wilderness – all they have to offer is mindless ideological obstruction rather than any coherent desire to sit down and make the compromises needed to move things forward. <\/p>\n

Related – NYT article about the loan<\/a> that the GOP refused last week for the automakers.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Republicans are furious with President Bush for agreeing to use TARP funds to bail out the auto industry: Sen. Judd Gregg (R-N.H.), one of the architects of the $700 billion Wall Street bailout, thinks Bush may be skirting the Troubled Asset Relief Program rules. “These funds were not authorized by Congress for non-financial companies…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":165,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[180,26,171,32,181],"class_list":["post-160","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-purple-politics","tag-bailout","tag-politics","tag-president-bush","tag-republicans","tag-tarp"],"yoast_head":"\nBush bails out the auto industry - City of Brass<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"noindex, follow\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Bush bails out the auto industry - City of Brass\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"The Republicans are furious with President Bush for agreeing to use TARP funds to bail out the auto industry: Sen. 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City of Brass is his weblog, which was founded in 2002 under the name UNMEDIA. He is a co-founder of the annual Brass Crescent Awards. The name City of Brass refers to the Story of the City of Brass in the Thousand and One Nights, and the poem by Rudyard Kipling of the same name: Here was a people whom, after their works, thou shalt see wept over for their lost dominion; And in this palace is the last information respecting lords collected in the dust. -- Thousand and One Nights, Story of the City of Brass IN A land that the sand overlays, the ways to her gates are untrod, A multitude ended their days whose fates were made splendid by God, Till they grew drunk and were smitten with madness and went to their fall, And of these is a story written: but Allah Alone knoweth all! -- Rudyard Kipling, The City of Brass (1909)"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/165"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=160"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/160\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=160"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=160"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=160"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}