Republicans Ask Workers to Give, but Not Small Businessmen or Bond-Holders

Best as I can tell from the speeches, the takeaway from Bob Corker’s cynical "compromise" bill is this. The US Congress would ask the auto industry’s creditors to take a "hair cut" as follows:

  • The suppliers would not be asked to make a deadline-certain concession
  • The bond-holders would not be asked to make a deadline-certain concession
  • The dealers (who are important constituents in every congressman’s district or state) would not be asked to make a deadline-certain concession

But..

  • The workers had to make a deadline-certain concession–to lower their own wages so as to compensate for the fact that their employers had signed contracts to–and planned to honor–their commitments to retirees who had worked for the in years past

The Republicans in the Senate are risking crashing the world economy simply because hundreds of thousands of real workers wouldn’t make concessions that the local owners and white collars bankers weren’t asked to make.

And that–according to the Republicans in the Senate–is the American way. 

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73 replies
  1. Leen says:

    “lower their own wages” such a deal.

    When will our congress members “lower their own wages”. This is pathetic.

    • FrankProbst says:

      I just don’t see how this can go down without huge problems.

      It can’t. It’s always easy to demonize “the union”. It’s going to be a lot harder to demonize the actual workers who are being targeted for a wage cut. And those are the people who are going to be interviewed on television tomorrow. If this is the Corker “compromise”, it’s going to be a PR disaster for them.

  2. PJEvans says:

    Can we push a law through to lower the pay and bennies for Congress to minimum wage for the next six years, or until the economy recovers, whichever is sooner, as decided by the voters (because Congress is eternally deluded into optimism about its competence)?

  3. Scarecrow says:

    Haggis noting that 10 Republican senators voted yes to invoke cloture. So only 42 Dems voted yes. “Don’t blame us.”

    • Peterr says:

      No.

      Several of those GOP votes were for cover, I’m sure, once the final outcome was clear. Bond, for instance.

      Once the tally is posted, I want to see who wasn’t around for the vote. Those are the names that really interest me.

  4. PJEvans says:

    Dhammapada chapter 9, on evil, verse 116:

    Be quick in doing
    what is admirable.
    Restrain your mind
    from what is evil.
    When you’re slow
    in making merit,
    evil delights the mind.

    If they’d acted quickly on the auto companies, and not screwed around setting up the oversight part of the Wall Street bailout, we’d all be better off. We were in the fire already, and these guys are now advising adding gasoline to it.

  5. Scarecrow says:

    Good grief, Haggis now arguing that the House bill was wrong because it would have prevented pursuit of litigation rights wrt to California regulations, and that would be a violation of separation of powers — what a wonderful principle.

    • RevDeb says:

      Haggis has a habit of bloviating off point, bitching and moaning for the greater good and then voting against what he was talking about. Miserable wretch.

  6. Leen says:

    Spector “so that people can see what we are doing” folks can see real well Senator. We can see that you have chosen to fuck the auto worker

  7. MadDog says:

    And on the NYT front page, the unions are accused as the cause of the bailout failure:

    Auto Bailout Talks Collapse in the Senate
    By THE ASSOCIATED PRESS 1 minute ago
    The $14 billion bailout died in the Senate Thursday night after the United Auto Workers refused to accede to Republican demands for swift wage cuts.

    (My bold)

    And as other TradeMed slavishly follow the NYT’s lead, expect much more TradeMed blame to fall on the unions.

    • EternalVigilance says:

      The $14 billion bailout died…after the United Auto Workers refused to accede to Republican demands for swift wage cuts.

      In other words, the problem wasn’t the rape, but the resisting.

      Guess labor shouldn’t oughta worn that dress.

  8. Leen says:

    wonder if these folks are outside tonight
    http://www.freep.com/article/2…..1/81207038

    With Detroit’s Big Three in trouble and a possible bridge loan looming, members from local unions are heading to Washington, D.C. in an effort to put a human face to the auto crisis.
    Advertisement

    The caravan of three cars and about 16 people departed around 4 p.m. today and plans to pick up fellow union members from places like Indiana, New York, and Ohio on the way. Once in Washington, the group plans to hold a morning press conference before delivering their message to Congress.

    On Sunday afternoon, they held a press conference at the Metropolitan Center for High Technology in Detroit. Detroit City Council President Pro Tem JoAnn Watson, fresh off her own trip to Washington, addressed the gathered crowd and media.

    “These hearings have not been fair or respectful to this city and organized labor,” she said, a statement followed by thunderous applause.

  9. EternalVigilance says:

    The Senate is risking crashing the world economy

    (quote massaged because I don’t distinguish between R’s and D’s – they work together).

    This isn’t a risk, it’s the goal.

    This is just 9/11 all over again, but at a global economic scale.

  10. wesgpc says:

    Blogs and progressive leaders who can get on the national media need to explain very carefully what tonight’s actions say about the GOP.

  11. DrDick says:

    I am just way too pissed off and depressed by this (especially Tester). think I will go quietly drink myself to death. Night all.

  12. RevDeb says:

    So will the Senate stay open for procedural reasons to keep the dead duck from planting more odious land mines in federal office before Jan?

  13. SanderO says:

    I have been commenting at the lake that all the politics and hearings and court cases and investigations and opinions will do nothing to change what is the American way… except when the economy crashes. And that is now in a rapid process of happening – no slowly but in a gathering steam fashion.

    The all hell will break loose and the game changes.

    Watch the internet blink off.. and the fascists come out to defend their castles.

  14. Hugh says:

    IMO, al quaida and Republicans have far more in common with each other than meets the eye.

    al Qaeda never did a fraction of the damage that the Republicans and complicit Democrats have done to the country. al Qaeda was never more than a nuisance. Our political elites on the other hand look to destroy us.

  15. nahant says:

    Repukes just signed their Death Knell with the refusal to LOAN yes LOAN not a bail out of the Detroit 3. They have set in motion the melt down of the Economy! How any of the 95%’ers can ever vote for a Repuke is beyond me! These pukes ar a pimple on the arse of our country and must be lanced and the puss inside deposited in the nearest incinerator! Fucking Bastards!!!
    digg it Pups we need to get this viral!

  16. CTuttle says:

    Don’t you think that headline of “$14 Billion Auto Bailout Collapses” right alongside this…

    Ex-Nasdaq chair arrested on securities fraud charge in NYC; accused of $50B ‘Ponzi scheme’

    NEW YORK (AP) — A former Nasdaq stock market chairman was arrested on a securities fraud charge Thursday, accused of running a fraudulent investment business that lost at least $50 billion before he confessed to senior employees it was a “giant Ponzi scheme,” authorities said.

    I’m sure it’ll go over like a lead balloon in flyover country…

  17. oldgold says:

    I am outraged by what occurred in the US Senate this evening. But, that isn’t going to save this situation.
    To save this situation our ‘leaders’ are going to have to find a fig leaf to provide cover for 8 or so Republican Senators to walk their vote back.
    I think by noon this will happen.

  18. nonplussed says:

    “And while you’re studying that reality — judiciously, as you will — we’ll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too …”

    The time has come to react.

    • nahant says:

      Bush doesn’t want as part of HIS legacy the loss of the auto Industry, he legacy is bad enough. If he doesn’t act he will also be known as the president who could have saved 3 million + jobs and didn’t….
      the Repukes have signed their own death warrant for screwing the American Blue collar workers. I wonder how many collateral jobs will be lost in their states? There is sure to be a domino effect because of this!

  19. 4jkb4ia says:

    Sanger and Herszenhorn up. Here are their first three paragraphs:

    The Senate on Thursday night abandoned efforts to fashion a government rescue of the American automobile industry, as Senate Republicans refused to support a bill endorsed by the White House and Congressional Democrats.

    The failure to reach agreement on Capitol Hill raised a specter of financial collapse for General Motors and Chrysler, which some experts say may not be able to survive until the end of the year.

    After Senate Republicans balked at supporting a $14 billion auto rescue plan approved by the House on Wednesday, negotiators worked late into Thursday evening to broker a compromise but they deadlocked over Republican demands for steep cuts in pay and benefits by the United Automobile Workers union in 2009.

  20. Hugh says:

    I have really come to loath Jack Goldsmith but he is the one who quotes Addington as saying,

    We’re going to push and push and push until some larger force makes us stop

    This is the key statement to understand every single event of the last 8 years involving Bush, his Administration, and Congressional Republicans.

    • EternalVigilance says:

      We’re going to push and push and push until some larger force makes us stop

      This is the key statement to understand every single event of the last 8 years

      Bingo.

      (With again the reminder that R’s and D’s are two parts of a single whole, so only removing one half is like only removing half a cancer.)

      As with any life-threatening disease, my life will just make my symptoms larger and larger and more and more painful until I finally accept I’m ill, get treatment, and change my lifestyle to something more sustainable.

      I either need to resolve to live, and act accordingly, or accept that it’s time to die.

      The past 8 years have simply been life’s call to truly start living.

  21. 4jkb4ia says:

    I still think FISA was worse. In the case of FISA you had more “complicit Democrats” and people were not aware of the issue enough to care about it. In this case the people went to the polls to vote against this kind of behavior.

  22. pdaly says:

    Congress has never missed an opportunity to miss an opportunity.

    Sad thing is, we used to hear that said of Saddam Hussein.

  23. pdaly says:

    I wonder if some US black ops group might be willing to part with or loan out several $billion from one of their black ops budgets.

    Surely they can find some enterprising poppy traders willing to invest in the American auto industry.

  24. pseudonymousinnc says:

    They didn’t have their names on a roll call, but the GOP rump of the lame duck is going to be named in histories in decades hence. I think the money’s going to be coming out of TARP. Bush doesn’t give a fuck about his standing with the Senate GOP, but he does have a “legacy” to think about. He might be a shit president — one of the shittest we’ve had — but he’s going to make Dick Shelby and Jim DeMint look even worse. We’ll know before the markets open.

  25. GulfCoastPirate says:

    If we really want to change this country aren’t these types of confrontations inevitable? Major kudos to the UAW for holding their ground. Just think, they could have acted like Democrats and caved.

  26. nextstopchicago says:

    OT – the Tribune Company was subpoenaed today (or maybe earlier in the week.)

    Are subpoenas public documents? Can they be requested on-line? Viewed on-line? Is there anything interesting in a subpoena, or does it just say “to show certain documents as specified by the agent in charge” or something like that?

  27. oldgold says:

    Looking at the roll call, it doesn’t seem all that hopeless to me. We have 52 votes. Reid voted no for procedural reasons. That gives us 53. Biden, Kennedy, Kerry and Wyden were absent. That would give us 57. 3 Democrats voted no. Of these 3 [Baucus, Lincoln and Tester]at least 2 should be amenable to switching their vote, if push came to shove. Several ‘reasonable’ Republicans [Hagel, Smith and Sununu] did not vote. There might be a yes vote there. Finally, given his hero complex, McCain might be encouraged to switch his vote to save the day.

  28. freepatriot says:

    so the repuglitards still ain’t learned to DIG UP ???

    whom do the repuglitards suppose voters are gonna use the tar and feathers on ???

    Is you, or is you ain’t, my constituency ???

    gratuitous Coen Brothers reference

    hey ew, here’s a book title idea for you: “from rail splitters to rail riders”, the complete history of the repuglitard party

    I don’t cause it, I just divine it …

    sixty seven in 2010

  29. bell says:

    busting unions is still okay… busting a banking cartel called ‘the fed’ that answers to no one is not a remote consideration.. how could these same politicians see the need for removing a plague they are temporarily supported by?

  30. plunger says:

    This failed bailout vote in the Senate could all be a Rovian set-up designed specifically to save the image of his client, GW Bush. If Rove instructs the GOP to take a strong stand against the bridge loan in the Senate, with the promise that the President will in fact come to the rescue (as though it were his money) with funding from the TARP to accomplish the same goal, Bush gets a big ”attaboy!” from his detractors and a bump in the popularity polls.

    Would Rove intentionally manipulate the system to that extent just to put some lipstick on that pig?

    Does the Pope wear a funny hat?

  31. plunger says:

    Markets around the world have tanked.

    What time today will Bush ride to the rescue with TARP money to (temporarily) save GM?

    If you were a globalist/insider, you could make a killing, because you’d have known this entire charade days in advance, and made money in both directions.

    INSIDER TRADING. Just another standard feature of the Plutocrats holier-than-thou agenda.

  32. alabama says:

    Trying to read this? As a contest between the two political parties? It doesn’t work out. As a contest between regions? No, not really. Between rich and poor? We don’t know who’s rich any more. The secure and the insecure? But no one feels secure….

    I read it as a scramble of hostage-taking, where every vote (every decision) by each and every player is an act of self-defense. A strange game, where the hostage-taker becomes a hostage to the hostages taken: you cannot destroy Lehman Brothers (or Detroit, or the smaller banks) without becoming their hostage in turn (having to pay a price for their destruction that you can’t afford).

    Taken to its logical conclusion, this scramble can only lead to the collapse of the Central Bank (yes, yes, the point’s been made many times, but it’s easily forgotten, because it’s unimaginable). Which is why Obama’s determination to embark us upon a really huge infrastructural makeover has to get going right away: it does something that the Defense Budget managed to do throughout the Cold War–maintaining WW II levels of industrial production–but creates a new domestic product that really creates something of use-value.

    • plunger says:

      The FED is a private institution. They bamboozled us into providing them with the apparent authority to print our “money” by bribing a couple “representatives” to vote for it while most of their peers were home for the holidays. The US (we the people) have the capability to print our own “money,” without creating the burden of interest upon ourselves. The FED benefits the more we the people go into debt to this private institution masquerading as an arm of our government. Goldman Sachs is installed at Treasury for Christ sakes!

      Congress has within its power, the legal authority to abolish the Federal Reserve any time it chooses. Since all of the “representatives” in Congress were placed there by the banksters who own the Central Bank(s), it’s just not every going to happen.

      They are taking the system down on purpose. The Central Bank will never collapse, unless we the people demand that it be abolished and/or simply refuse to cooperate…or else.

      Listen:

      http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G1465ygw5HU

  33. ezdidit says:

    Bush, erstwhile compassionate conservative, will have to step in with a bailout and a final kibosh on the Republicans. The Shelbys, McConnells, Corkers and Vitters can drop dead.

    At long last, Bush will repudiate his own party. If he doesn’t step in, the Chinese will do it, and they will do it immediately. It is the Chinese who cannot afford to lose any more money. Their bonds and notes will be worthless! Just what they deserve for screwing with the world credit markets two and a half months ago.

    If the US gets a cold, they get pneumonia – but if WE get pneumonia, they will absolutely die.

  34. Chris369 says:

    The Shelby’s of the world will have to answer to their non-union employees when their wages get cut so the Toyota’s, etc can keep their cost advantage over the Big 3. Can anyone tell me how a blue collar worker making $28/hour is a crime against the economy? The only explanation is less for you more for me. So much for productivity. Eventually there will be no difference between us and the old Soviet Union, the ruling class and the proletariat, the super rich and the ex-union members (+everyone else not in the upper5%)

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