Our representatives in congress have made a big show of rebuking executives of the Big Three automakers, scolding them for traveling to DC in private jets, and demanding detailed plans before lending them money. It's almost as if they were trying to make us believe that they feel some sense of responsibility for our money.
Such was not the case when the financial system collapsed, and congress authorized $720 billion to be given to banks with virtually no oversight, no demand for detailed plans, and no public humiliation of bank directors. Now the bankers are busily reducing consumers' credit limits, right at the start of the holiday shopping season, while the government alleges that it is trying to make credit more available. Shameful.
Why didn't congress treat the banks the same way they are treating the car companies? Because government bears equal responsibility with the banks for the bankrupting of America and your congress person doesn't want you to dwell on how he or she let you down. Now the Big Three automakers, coming to them with hat in hand, are the perfect patsies for congress to use to divert our attention and make America forget that they failed us miserably in ways that will cause many families to suffer for a generation.
Ford and GM were well into their turnaround plans before the financial market collapse that demolished our 401k plans also made the car market disappear and burned most of the rest of the automakers' cash. Now, they are asking for permission to borrow up to $32 billion of the $720 billion already earmarked. Think of it as what we spend in Iraq in two months. If the companies succeed, lending them this money will have saved 3.5 million jobs and kept alive the R & D labs we are counting on to design the green cars we will all be driving in 15 years. If they are unsuccessful and the big Three eventually collapse, the effort to save them will still have been worth it.
The decision is a no-brainer. But politicians can't resist an opportunity to divert attention from their own failings to the plight of a ready-made patsy or three.