December 10th 2008
Car Czar? What Car Czar?
W
ith Barney the dinosaur and Princess NanPo of the Golden Gate firmly in the driver’s seat, it looks like the Big 3 bailout is just about to pull out of the Monster Garage.
Given the direness of the economy and the potential for deflation, pumping a little freshly minted money into three big employers isn’t the worst thing in the news, especially since it looks like the bill will have a “car czar” who will have the authority to force any old car maker that’s on the dole into bankruptcy if it isn’t heading down the road to profitability.
My bottom line on this deal has always been that government must reject the Big 3′s ludicrous talking point that if one goes they all go. What poppycock! If Congress were to endorse such economic insanity, it would be a sure sign that a full endorsement of the economic insanity that is socialism would soon follow.
There are two big flaws in all this. First, it gives the UAW and its prez Ron Gettelfinger a trump card, because one of the conditions that would lead the car czar to force a company into BK is that failed to move the unions far enough off their golden throne. All Gettelfinger and his union goons have to do is dig in their feet and the car maker of their choice will be trudging off to bankruptcy court. They’ll certainly use that power to their advantage, to protect what’s nearest and dearest to them.
The other big flaw, of course, is that George W. Bush gets to name the car czar. This after his bailout czar, Treasury Secretary Henry M. Paulson Jr., has muffed, stumbled, baited and switched, blown, sucked and generally been the butter-fingered outfielder in the most important game we’ve played recently. The fans are booing. They’re yelling at the coach.
And now the coach gets to pick the car czar.
Who’s he going to pick? Who knows? All I know is that if there was someone around who was capable of saving the Big 3, he’d be making an 8- or 9-figure salary and major bonuses and options for running one of the Big 3 profitably. But Lord knows that’s not happening, so who’s Bush going to find to do the job? What clone of the blithering idiot Paulson will he give absolute authority to so the Big 3, like the banks, can use buckets of fed largess to accomplish nothing more than making the economy even worse?
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