Bailout Or Big Labor Payoff??

The big three automakers showed up on Capitol Hill to beg for their "share" of the federal bailout money and try to get their collective snouts into the Federal trough.

SOME ADVICE TO THE BIG THREE: When you want to come looking for a handout, showing up in your three, THREE, private jets is probably not the best way to set the mood with your lenders. You should probably try to look poor, act poor and show a little more financial responsibilty in your travel arrangements. Hey, granted this was not an AIG-style luxury junket, but wouldn't commercial flights have been a lot cheaper??? Just some food for thought.

Now, as I understand the figures, GM would like to get $5 billion of which approximately half would be used to pay off on benefits from their union contract with the UAW. The UAW has been milking the auto companies dry for decades. Currently, the average employee wage in this country is about $28 per hour. The cost of labor at the Toyota plant in Tennessee is about $46 per hour. GM's cost of labor is in the ballpark of $73 per hour. So, roughly speaking, the average American wage earner is expected to pony up a little more than 2.5 hours' worth of wages for every bailout hour that GM needs to pay off. Is it just me, or does that sound a tad bit unfair to the rest of America?

Is this kind of use of this money really going to make GM operate better, more efficiently, more profitably??? Probably not. This kind of payoff will enable the UAW to continue milking GM for a while longer. It has all the earmarks of a payoff from our Democratic-controlled Congress to the big labor vote that helps keep them in power.

These bailouts are wrong, Wrong, WRONG!! Any decent poker player knows that, sometimes, you just have to fold a bad hand, lose the money you have already bet and wait for better cards to be dealt. Throwing good money after bad in this situation will only lead to more waste, more losses, and more problems...oh, yes, and requests for more money.

Think about this. The original bailout bill was to be for $700 billion, total. Only now, we hear figures in the TRILLIONS OF DOLLARS being discussed in the news and in Congress. WHERE WILL IT ALL END?!?!?

WE NEED TO FOLD THIS HAND NOW AND NOT THROW THIS MONEY AWAY!!

IT IS NOT GOOD FOR AMERICA, IT IS NOT FAIR TO THE AMERICAN TAXPAYER AND IN THE END, IT WILL NOT SOLVE GM'S PROBLEMS, ONLY PROLONG THEM!