Bush And Cheney--Oilmen 'Til The End

[Guest]

So it looks like Congress wants some sort of bailout for the car companies. The Congress expressed an intent to vote a new $25 billion as a bridge loan/bailout to the auto industry, but President Bush said he would veto such a bill. Instead, he told the Congress to vote to re-designate the $25 billion they had already approved which was specified for use in the research and development of new, fuel efficient engines for use as the bridge loan. The Congress had also asked that $25 billion from the already approved bailout of the banks and Wall Street be designated by the President for the auto industry, but Bush refused to approve that alternative either.

Our oilman President and his oilman VP had the Congress right where they wanted them. If they wanted to save the auto industry, they'd have to use the money that was to go towards the development of new engines that would use less oil. Using less oil is not a good thing if you're an oilman from Texas.

Personally, I think the redesignation of monies from the $700 billion already approved to bailout the banks would have been a better alternative--and less expensive to us taxpayers. But that wouldn't kill the new engine development plans, would it?

Am I jumping to conclusions here? No, I don't think so. There's little more that the President and Vice President could do to further damage their legacy. So why not do something to at least help out their oilman buddies?

[Guest]

So it looks like Congress wants some sort of bailout for the car companies. The Congress expressed an intent to vote a new $25 billion as a bridge loan/bailout to the auto industry, but President Bush said he would veto such a bill. Instead, he told the Congress to vote to re-designate the $25 billion they had already approved which was specified for use in the research and development of new, fuel efficient engines for use as the bridge loan. The Congress had also asked that $25 billion from the already approved bailout of the banks and Wall Street be designated by the President for the auto industry, but Bush refused to approve that alternative either.

Our oilman President and his oilman VP had the Congress right where they wanted them. If they wanted to save the auto industry, they'd have to use the money that was to go towards the development of new engines that would use less oil. Using less oil is not a good thing if you're an oilman from Texas.

Personally, I think the redesignation of monies from the $700 billion already approved to bailout the banks would have been a better alternative--and less expensive to us taxpayers. But that wouldn't kill the new engine development plans, would it?

Am I jumping to conclusions here? No, I don't think so. There's little more that the President and Vice President could do to further damage their legacy. So why not do something to at least help out their oilman buddies?

I must be missing the logic here.

The Big-3 and UAW want a bailout so they can remain at status quo. Any "change" they are presenting is window-dressing, with the real plan being to cover their current costs for a couple of quarters. After that, unless there's a LOT of sales, they come back for another handout.

In the airline industry - which has as many feeder and ancillary industries as the auto industry - Delta, USAir, Northwest, United and a dozen others all went Chapter 11 in the last 5 years. The death of their feeder industries was the same argument they used to seek help, and they were ignored. The end result was the airlines and the feeder/ancillary survived through mergers, acquisitions, debt restructure, union compromise and better management. The proof is visible each time you try to find a half-empty flight anymore or even a quiet airport.

So, the "oilmen" - as successful businessmen - may be seeing something that the lawyers (with no business experience, but good at making voter deals) can't or won't.

And why is the auto industry different than the airline industry, the dairy industry, the beer industry or the meat industry? Could it possibly be political dealing pre-election?