Congress Reviews the Taxpayers' Investment

One of the biggest stories at the North American International Auto Show yesterday was not the cars, but the congressional delegation — led by Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Steny Hoyer — that came to the show. In addition to Pelosi and Hoyer, much of Michigan’s delegation (the only Republican was Fred Upton, though Candice Miller had intended to attend before bad roads got in the way), Ohio Representatives Tim Ryan and Betty Sutton, and Senators Byron Dorgan and Tom Carper attended the show. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood and Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis were there, too; and until last Thursday, Obama was planning to attend (until the Secret Service decided it would be a security nightmare).

In other words, there was a big presence of DC bigwigs at the auto show. As Pelosi, in particular, worked her way from the General Motors’ display (she got a close look at the Volt) to the Chrysler to the Ford one (she checked out the new Focus), the media followed along in a big pack, filming her chatting with the CEOs of America’s (and, in the case of GM and Chrysler, the taxpayers’) auto companies. In the YouTube above, she and Hoywer are talking to Ford CEO Alan Mulally.

The crowds and media attention their presence brought tells you something — that DC has been far too distant from America’s industrial base for far too long.

Indeed, some of the DC-MI folks I spoke to pointed out to me that the US car companies have not done a good job at reaching out to the press in recent years, and nor has DC shown much interest in exchange.  The hope was that yesterday’s visit may begin to change all that. (I know GM plans a series of Volt test drives for politicos at the DC auto show later this month.)

And, at the very least, Pelosi has promised to come back next year.

Speaking to those close to the delegation, it sounds like one of the most productive parts of the day was a lunch some of the DC bigwigs had with some local representatives of energy companies: Dow Kokam, Johnson-Saft Power, and Dowding Machining. In addition to talking to about innovation going on here in MI, they talked about the kind of support they need to continue and grow such efforts.  That’s the kind of conversation — rather than just a pitch from a CEO standing in front of a shiny car–that we need to see more of.

Here’s a YouTube from the press conference Pelosi did at the end of the day. And here are the comments John Dingell and Fred Upton made at the same press conference.

image_print
  1. Jim White says:

    Sorry to go OT at the top of a thread, but WTF? Nine shipping containers with PETN (the pantybomber’s weapon of choice) punctured in North Carolina? Inquiring minds want to know:
    1) Incoming or outbound?
    2) Is Blackwater involved?
    3) How can nine containers with explosives be “punctured”?

    • WilliamOckham says:

      In my admittedly ancient (like 25+ years ago) and brief association with shipping, when you drop something and it breaks you say it ruptured. When you drop something on something else and the stationary thing breaks, you say it was punctured. I’d guess that somebody dropped something on the PETN shipment and some of the containers were breached.

      • Jim White says:

        Yeah, but transportation regulations for high explosives are pretty strict. This material should have been in containers that would shrug off being dropped or being dropped on. This took a mistake in packaging as well as a mistake in handling. That’s why my mind went immediately to Blackwater and their disdain for regulations and/or properly trained personnel.

        • MarkH says:

          Is it possible our security people discovered and had to use an “accident” to verify the contents of that package?

          Indeed, enquiring minds want to know.

          Where did it come from?
          Who shipped it?
          What company was shipping it?
          Is this the port the Dubai company got to handle for security?
          Was it shipped before the Yemeni cleric ordered “the Nigerian” on his way?

    • BoxTurtle says:

      1) Almost certainly outbound. We make all the PETN we can use here.

      2) Given that there was no announcement of about 30 casualities, I’d guess no.

      3) There’s the real question. Insufficient data.

      ON Topic: Am I the only one who is NOT reassured by the congresscritters attendance? They’re paying attention, I suppose, but it isn’t like they weren’t before. The automakers have a reasonably powerful PAC and I’m told the Union also has a presence in DC. It can’t be the first time those congresscritters have heard about the wants/needs of the auto industry.

      I’ll hold my hopes until something more than the politicians padding their election portfolios with reporters in tow.

      Wanna help? Single payer health care. A gas tax to fix and maintain the roads. Drop the taxes on anybody who trades in a clunker. More money for electric storage research. Don’t make ’em keep dealerships they don’t need.

      Boxturtle (Or does the above not benefit the Insurance Lobby enough?)

  2. readerOfTeaLeaves says:

    Question:

    In addition to Pelosi and Hoyer, much of Michigan’s delegation (the only Republican was Fred Upton, though Candice Miller had intended to attend before bad roads got in the way), Tim Ryan, Betty Sutton, Byron Dorgan, and Tom Carper attended the show. Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood and Secretary of Labor Hilda Solis were there, too; and until last Thursday, Obama was planning to attend (until the secret service decided it would be a security nightmare).

    makes it sound like Ryan, Sutton, Dorgan and Carper are in the MI delegation. Huh…?

    FWIW, I’m familiar with Dorgan and Carper, but a bit empty about Ryan and Sutton. Significance, anyone…?

    (Hey, blogs are for learning, right??)

    Nice to see Dorgan there, particularly given his interest in energy!

    And thanks for this, Marcy:

    Speaking to those close to the delegation, it sounds like one of the most productive parts of the day was a lunch some of the DC bigwigs had with some local representatives of energy companies: Dow Kokam, Johnson-Saft Power, and Dowding Machining. In addition to talking to about innovation going on here in MI, they talked about the kind of support they need to continue and grow such efforts. That’s the kind of conversation–rather than just a pitch from a CEO standing in front of a shiny car–that we need to see more of.

    Honestly, I think this is one of the most optimistic things that I’ve read in a while.

    Hat’s off to the Congressional delegation, and to whoever pulled this together.

    It seems to go right back to bmaz’s work — and Marcy’s — in the past 18 months helping highlight the huge disconnect between industrial and manufacturing processes, and the DC agendas of the past 30 years. Looks like this theme is starting to rise to the surface again, and that’s enormously heartwarming and encouraging.

      • readerOfTeaLeaves says:

        Ah? Thanks for the update ;-))

        Also, just to underscore that ‘heartwarming’ part — it’s very encouraging to think that LOCAL business people can actually get the time of the big DC honchos. And over lunch, at that!

        I’m guessing that most of us learn at least as much over a shared meal as we’ve learned in classroom or ‘formal’ settings. I tip my hat to whoever had the good sense to put that lunch together.

  3. emptywheel says:

    Btw, I was told by the guy in charge of the Volt yesterday that Dorgan was inducted into the Electric Drive Hall of last year. Not sure what that is…

    But I did ask–so, you gonna hire Dorgan once he retires? No, they haven’t offered yet.

    • Jim White says:

      Hey, you know we have Dorgan penciled in for Treasury.

      Anyway, though, it is indeed encouraging to see some in Congress finally realizing there’s something going on in Detroit that they just might want to support. A huge problem lies in your observation about the absence of Republicans. As long as the GOP sees bashing all of Detroit as a fun pastime to get their jollies from hurting the autoworkers’ union while pleasing Limbaugh and Beck, Congress will stay pretty clogged up on real support.

  4. emptywheel says:

    Well, one of the things that ruined the tea-baggers’ attempts at a big protest yesterday was that the local tea-baggers thought such a protest was anti-capitalist. So they do have their limits.

    Also, I plan to make a big stink–once I get to some real WiFi–about the fact that Thad McCotter was not there yesterday. His district is right in the middle of the auto world.

  5. freeman says:

    Nacy says “we will have and have built along comprehensive legisislation to honor those four principles , ahh again in our national interest economic security and ecomonic intersst as well as our health and moral responsibility to the next generation .”

    I say

  6. dakine01 says:

    The crowds and media attention their presence brought tells you something–that DC has been far too distant from America’s industrial base for far too long.

    Clarity moment. This is absolutely correct. When I was growing up there were always pictures in the local papers and in the magazines for various organizations and the pols were always touring the facilities for most likely standard foto-ops but they were out in public and seeing how things are locally. Nowadays, it’s the pics from DC and only rarely are they from the local tool & die shop or food processing and such.

  7. readerOfTeaLeaves says:

    Housekeeping: I don’t know whether anyone else gets a Starbuck’s promo on the right margin, but I do.

    When I click on that ad, it goes to an error screen.
    Anyone else encounter this problem?
    (Whoever deals with ads at FDL/EW may want to pass the info along…)

    And now, back to the post…

  8. JohnLopresti says:

    I wonder if EWhitaker’s stint with GM will show budgeteering similar to his option as SBC’s ceo to end the PacTelesis exploration of video over telco, a project which I believe has resumed now ten+ years later. He has a hard working approach, if I recall accurately some conversations I had with him, fleetingly. It is nice congress’ lower chamber is showing some auto industry follow through with the recent enhanced oversight government has put forth.

      • JohnLopresti says:

        Tx bmz, It was one of those ascetic fasts: I trekked into the MSM world, wondering who would grasp the storylines as crisply and as early as ew and bmaz have these past few years. Yet, for 10 months all I read was the local paper, owned by NYT; no internet. My plan for a debriefing involves careful notes I jotted, though; so, I ‘got some questions’, for later topics and some continuum bringing forward questions from the past work here together; hopefully precisely as limpidly pertinent as the title of the current thread. Happy new year 2010 emptywheel.

  9. TarheelDem says:

    Did Fred Upton actually vote for the auto bailout, or was this a case in which the Republicans voted 100% against?

  10. Cujo359 says:

    I wouldn’t expect them to admit it publicly if they had. Offering a government official while he’s still an official is bad form.

    Or was your tongue in your cheek and I didn’t notice?

  11. OldFatGuy says:

    Man that guy on the left of the still looks like Darth Vader.

    Geez, the guy brings on so many nightmares I’m now seeing him everywhere. *Gasp!*

  12. SouthernDragon says:

    Do any of these pols remember how to drive? Chauffeured cars don’t provide much opportunity for them to drive, except for those little wheels that attach to the back of the front seat; no pedals though.

    • eCAHNomics says:

      Car cos. & mfg in general are probably not big campaign contributors any more, so pols don’t need to pay attention to them.

    • eCAHNomics says:

      Cash for clunkers is an environmental disaster. It destroyed perfectly good cars while raping natural resources to build new ones that are somewhat less harmful to the environment. It was an economic stim but perhaps they can think of a better one that doesn’t harm the environment if, as seems likely, more stim is needed.

    • MarkH says:

      I don’t know that you could focus federal gov’t help that narrowly. If it would help, we could push any “new technology” automobiles which explore new ways to be more energy efficient and cheaper for the car’s owner.

      As for the Republicans who kick Michigan and the auto industry around…
      They’re huge hypocrites who claimed to want the support of Michigan and the Catholic vote and now they turn against them because they voted for Obama in ’08. I’d like to see ’em all dumped into a huge hold in the ground, so we could build something productive and vastly more appealing on that ground.

      Boston had the ‘big dig’. Michigan could use a big new development too.

  13. letsbegin says:

    Yah. Two unresponsive, cloud-dwelling inbred self-important cultures crash into each other at the Detroit Auto Show. Whoopee.

    GM’s been making photo ops for thirty years–“Just wait ’til you getta loada THIS one! It’ll set the rest of the automotive world back TEN YEARS!!!”* Then, proceed to roll product out ahead of proper develoment of either product or market, then quietly shelve said worldbuster a few years later, after taking well-deserved shots for a crap product rife with defects, a sales force who doesn’t get the product or study beyond the corporate rahrah as to why anyone would buy a Hype Special after Lucy’s done the football sooooo many times in the past….

    As my teachers said a long tome ago, compare and contrast with all-to-familiar Congressional antics.

    Impunity plus arrogance plus Olympian indifference equals irrelevance. George Bush? Bill Clinton? Newt Gingrich? On the car side, Bob Lutz? Roger Smith? Henry Ford III?

    *CUBO: Cunduct Unbecoming Organizations. Especialy ones once the biggest and best examples of their type. Examples; American self governance. General Motors.

    • eCAHNomics says:

      Not when you consider the carbon produced to mine the ore, turn it into an auto skin, process plastics, etc. I.E., the whole energy chain. I have no problem with taxes on gasoline to encourage new purchases to go toward energy efficient cars, but I have a big problem with destroying perfectly serviceable cars, a requirement of cash for clunkers.

      I own an historic house, and so am familiar with an historic preservation mantra that the most energy efficient building is the one that already exists. It takes a lot of energy to replace a building or a car that already exists.

      • temptingfate says:

        We have a house from the early 1800s and it is not the most energy efficient option but as you said, it would take quite a bit of energy and trees to replace our old house. Except of that brick houses are too expensive to build or replace and the rubble would have to go somewhere. There are much worse things that recycling a house that was built before indoor plumbing. Heck our house started out as a blacksmith’s shop.

        Cash for clunkers was a new car dealer bailout disguised as a minor improvement in MPG. Crushing those car and their associated used parts was a huge waste. The savings to the purchaser was probably not significant over what they could have negotiated in a down sales market and almost certainly eliminated some of the buyer’s ability to get a better deal.

        Much like the truly stupid myth going around that dogs use more energy efficient than a SUV, the environmental cost to manufacture new units continues to be left out of a number of the current stimulus ideas.

    • MarkH says:

      I wonder if it would help a political candidate to have all their staff driving very very high mileage cars (like > 75mpg). Leading by example!

  14. letsbegin says:

    O, this vein of Kar Biz ‘n Kongress comparison is rich, rich, rich! There’s a diary in this here, waiting to be born…

    How about a historical contempt for European product or political philosophy–small cars, industrial/health care/public welfare policy–that proves unable to adapt to global upheavals or predicted shifts in social, political, and economic realities? Check, Karz, and check, Kongress.

    How about dumbfatass look-back jingoism–SUVs, any political campaign you’d care to mention– papering over the vast ruin of the foundational premise, whether it’s to design/construct effective transportation, or design/implement effective public policy? Check, and check, again!

    This is fun!

  15. ThingsComeUndone says:

    Recycle the cars as much as possible getting cars that only get 20 MPG off the road would help reduce green house gasses and America’s need for another oil war in Yemen. I do bow to your economic expertise that replacing a car takes allot of energy.

  16. Synoia says:

    Perhaps congress can go review their Finance Industry investment by going through their books? Aka an audit?

  17. sunshine says:

    And while Pelosi is talking with Ford folks:

    On September 24, 2009, William Clay Ford, chairman of the board of directors of Ford Motor Company, endorsed Rick on Paul W. Smith’s morning radio program on WJR in Detroit. Ford will also serve as a senior campaign counselor.[2]

    http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Snyder

    • sunshine says:

      I missed the part where Ford was endorsing a Republican for Gov of Mi.

      Richard D. (Rick) Snyder (born August 19, 1958) is CEO, Chair of the Board and co-founder of Ardesta LLC, a high tech venture capital firm located in Ann Arbor, Michigan. Rick previously served as CEO and Chairman of Gateway, Inc. On July 21, 2009, Rick Snyder announced he is running for Governor of Michigan in the 2010 election.[1] On September 24, 2009, William Clay Ford, chairman of the board of directors of Ford Motor Company, endorsed Rick on Paul W. Smith’s morning radio program on WJR in Detroit. Ford will also serve as a senior campaign counselor

      http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rick_Snyder

  18. ferrarimanf355 says:

    I sure hope she didn’t find out about the new Ford Mustang, or else she’d order Ford to kill it.

    And when are we going to get our money back from those sham bankruptcies of GM and Chrysler?