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Obama, GM, And The UAW

By Rabble Rouser Reverend Amy on May 21, 2009 at 8:00 AM in Auto Industry, Bailouts, Bank Bailouts, Bank Nationalization, Banks, California, Credit Card Companies, Credit Risk, Current Affairs, General Motors & Chrysler, Michigan, Stimulus Plan, SusanUnPC, Tax stimulus package, U.S. Treasury

I saw the following video Tuesday morning, and could scarcely believe my eyes:



Someone PLEASE tell me how, in just FOUR SHORT MONTHS, Obama has managed to take over the banks, kick out the CEO of a private company, hand over a private company, financed with OUR money, to a union? Oh, and let’s not forget his handing over CA to another union, SEIU? How?? How has this happened???

Oh, wait – and how about those of us who pay back our credit card bills regularly now being saddled with having to support the losers who act in bad faith? Why do we have to constantly bail out, and ENABLE, those people who go over their means, be it credit cards or mortgages or car loans? And the Senate can stop acting like they give a crap about this issue – Obama VOTED to enable the credit card companies while a senator, along with many other Democrats. So just stop the charade – and stop laying the burden of irresponsible behavior on those of us who have good credit, or else WE might not have that any longer, either.

If you have not already read it, I recommend to you the following post by my good friend, SusanUnPC, “A Personal Note Only For Those Who Voted For Obama.” And I would add, not only “ditto,” but in the most pastoral way possible to those who did vote for Obama, you can just bite me for what you have unleashed on this country. If only there was a way to make only those people support the UAW/GM, pay the ne’er-do-wells’ credit card bills, etc.

Hmm – that’s a thought – let’s figure out how to do just that – let them pay for Obama’s taking over private companies, banks, and kowtowing to the unions (again – I am not anti-union in general, just when they try to take over states or private companies). A pipe dream, I know, but for this moment, it helps to keep my head from exploding…

  • Linda C

    If the company owes the union money, and the union accepts stock in lieu of cash..Does that translate to the government handing over the company to the union? If another creditor accepted stock in lieu of cash owed, then does that also mean that the government “handed over the company to the creditors”? If the sums of money were owed to a hedge fund or holding company exchanged for stock would there be the same outcry? Why are unions considered to be “different” when money is owed to them within a contractual obligation? I guess there are few that remember life before Ronald Reagan’s view of the world.

    • http://rabblerouserruminations.blogspot.com Rabble Rouser Reverend Amy

      The big piece you are leaving out is that the secured creditors are being offered a paltry 30 cents on the dollar if they don’t cave to Obama’s plan. They are certain that over 100 yrs of jurisprudence on this very issue will get them more money than that. And, that’s why there are things like the FDIC – to ensure people do not lose their life savings, which they will, under Obama’s plan.

      I might add, some of those evil, “UnAmerican,” as Obama called them security holders is the Teacher’s Union and State Police Union of INDIANA.

      There is a HUGE problem with turning over a private company to a union as political payback, no matter how you want to spin it.

      And Ronald Reagan? Are you freakin’ kidding me?? Until the DNC showed their true colors, I was a yellow-dawg Dem, so don’t hand me that slight, please.

    • Tom Cat wodie j Jefferson Esq

      ha, the union has owned these auto companies for years, just not on paper. That’s ok, now the unions w 55% stock ownership can be responsible when they flush it completely down the toilet.

    • Doc99

      Obama gives 55% control to UAW: UAW negotiations with itself go smoothly. From Instapundit.

  • guess who

    You leaving out the fact that the government is dictating policy which is never a good idea.This is the problem.You freakin Obot.

    • Diana L. C.

      Yes, and there were other people who did have stocks in the company who did not get what was owed according to the agreements made when those stocks were purchased. I don’t mind unions having some control over company policy, but I do mind a President who does not care for legalities.

  • Jim

    Letter from a Dodge dealer

    My name is George C. Joseph. I am the sole owner of Sunshine Dodge-Isuzu, a family owned and operated business in Melbourne, Florida. My family bought and paid for this automobile franchise 35 years ago in 1974. I am the second generation to manage this business.

    We currently employ 50+ people and before the economic slowdown we employed over 70 local people. We are active in the community and the local chamber of commerce. We deal with several dozen local vendors on a day to day basis and many more during a month. All depend on our business for part of their livelihood. We are financially strong with great respect in the market place and community. We have strong local presence and stability.

    I work every day the store is open, nine to ten hours a day. I know most of our customers and all our employees. Sunshine Dodge is my life.

    On Thursday, May 14, 2009 I was notified that my Dodge franchise, that we purchased, will be taken away from my family on June 9, 2009 without compensation and given to another dealer at no cost to them. My new vehicle inventory consists of 125 vehicles with a financed balance of 3 million dollars. This inventory becomes impossible to sell with no factory incentives beyond June 9, 2009. Without the Dodge franchise we can no longer sell a new Dodge as “new,” nor will we be able to do any warranty service work. Additionally, my Dodge parts inventory, (approximately $300,000.) is virtually worthless without the ability to perform warranty service. There is no offer from Chrysler to buy back the vehicles or parts inventory.

    Our facility was recently totally renovated at Chrysler’s insistence, incurring a multi-million dollar debt in the form of a mortgage at Sun Trust Bank.

    HOW IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA CAN THIS HAPPEN?

    THIS IS A PRIVATE BUSINESS NOT A GOVERNMENT ENTITY

    This is beyond imagination! My business is being stolen from me through NO FAULT OF OUR OWN. We did NOTHING wrong.

    This atrocity will most likely force my family into bankruptcy. This will also cause our 50+ employees to be unemployed. How will they provide for their families? This is a total economic disaster.

    HOW CAN THIS HAPPEN IN A FREE MARKET ECONOMY IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA?

    I beseech your help, and look forward to your reply. Thank you.

    Sincerely,

    George C. Joseph President & Owner Sunshine Dodge-Isuzu

    wake the hell up people

    • NoBamaNoWay

      wow. that’s messed up. sounds like theft.

      • http://www.rabblerouserruminations.blogspot.com/ Rabble Rouser Reverend Amy

        Holy smokes – that is unbelievable…Thanks for posting it.

  • PopeInRome

    1. What are the other options to keep GM as a viable on-going car manufacturer?
    2. When a company goes into bankruptcy, I believe the stockholders get nothing and secured creditors get only cents on the dollar. Is that right?

    • http://rabblerouserruminations.blogspot.com Rabble Rouser Reverend Amy

      From what the Secretary of the Treasury in IN said, traditionally the secured creditors would get much more than the 30 cents on the dollar Obama was willing to toss their way.

      And the thing abt bankruptcy is that it is an opportunity for the company to restructure itself. That’s the BIG thing. But it is only going to do whatever the union, and Obama, want it to do now – which, apparently, is to keep getting our tax-paying dollars (we are giving more to GMAC, too – the loan arm – yippee!).

  • Tom Cat wodie j Jefferson Esq

    how did Obama do it? Full Democrat majority in WH and Congress, a corrupt media and lots of illegal money/donations changing hands. Not to mention a very long list of corrupt people in and out of Congress.

    • ces

      Let’s not forget:
      -GM and the Big Three’s ties to Big Oil
      -Relying on gas hogs for profit
      -No innovation on smart cars, even squashing research on them (crushing the EV1s, anyone?)
      -Using so much lobby money to kill better fuel standards, instead of research to meet said standards
      -GM making GMAC to play as a bank to get tied into the home mortgage/lending mess.
      -Large corporate structure that doesn’t reward innovation.
      -UAW pushing for wages for low-skill assembly line labor that far outdoes anything else in our economy. $60/hr to put in the passenger side front window for 10hrs/day, 4 days/wk? PLUS all those pensions.

      Forget the big bad govt. GM got themselves in this mess, as did Chrysler. They had a popular car in the PT Crusier, but it’s mileage sucked, so people went to the Matrix or Mazda 3 or other foreign cars.

      Go to the UK sites for Citroen, Fiat, Peugeot, Vauxhall and you’ll find petrol cars that get 65mph on the highway. Or even the UK Ford Focus…it gets like nearly 50mpg in the petrol configuration. So when the Big Three say it would take years to come up with these better, efficient cars, it’s BULL!

  • Jim

    My name is George C. Joseph. I am the sole owner of Sunshine Dodge-Isuzu, a family owned and operated business in Melbourne, Florida. My family bought and paid for this automobile franchise 35 years ago in 1974. I am the second generation to manage this business.

    We currently employ 50+ people and before the economic slowdown we employed over 70 local people. We are active in the community and the local chamber of commerce. We deal with several dozen local vendors on a day to day basis and many more during a month. All depend on our business for part of their livelihood. We are financially strong with great respect in the market place and community. We have strong local presence and stability.

    I work every day the store is open, nine to ten hours a day. I know most of our customers and all our employees. Sunshine Dodge is my life.

    On Thursday, May 14, 2009 I was notified that my Dodge franchise, that we purchased, will be taken away from my family on June 9, 2009 without compensation and given to another dealer at no cost to them. My new vehicle inventory consists of 125 vehicles with a financed balance of 3 million dollars. This inventory becomes impossible to sell with no factory incentives beyond June 9, 2009. Without the Dodge franchise we can no longer sell a new Dodge as “new,” nor will we be able to do any warranty service work. Additionally, my Dodge parts inventory, (approximately $300,000.) is virtually worthless without the ability to perform warranty service. There is no offer from Chrysler to buy back the vehicles or parts inventory.

    Our facility was recently totally renovated at Chrysler’s insistence, incurring a multi-million dollar debt in the form of a mortgage at Sun Trust Bank.

    HOW IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA CAN THIS HAPPEN?

    THIS IS A PRIVATE BUSINESS NOT A GOVERNMENT ENTITY

    This is beyond imagination! My business is being stolen from me through NO FAULT OF OUR OWN. We did NOTHING wrong.

    This atrocity will most likely force my family into bankruptcy. This will also cause our 50+ employees to be unemployed. How will they provide for their families? This is a total economic disaster.

    HOW CAN THIS HAPPEN IN A FREE MARKET ECONOMY IN THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA?

    I beseech your help, and look forward to your reply. Thank you.

    Sincerely,

    George C. Joseph President & Owner Sunshine Dodge-Isuzu

    This man and his family I feel so sorry for these guys. They put millions into a business selling a product that has a sole-source supplier on which they’re totally dependent and then. . . Life is hard.

    This is what OBAMA is doings is taking out th small business ower owers who build and worked hard to do.You don’t think this was just by chance this happend do you ? No,this is part of his plan to take our america and to depend on their agenda.How do you think this man feels ? wake up look what this fraud is doing to our country.You don’t think he was with Rezko-Bill Ayers-Acorn -facts check-Move on .org-sat on the board of May tag and many others to what? Oh con con and you don’t think Michele Obama stood in a building with many people as well with the CEO of Fannie Mae clapping as the CEO of Fannie Mae said “We are having probles now in finance.but,how ever will continue to give out the loans.Hello.They gave to people who could not repay the loans back and they knew it this was just part of it to get the ball a rolling. Don’t bitch do something about it this should have never happend. I see now what the main stream and Obama washington democras were doing now.Oh, he ids best for getting us stright in what we face today,Yeah best?Which mean best to take out America and all the people who worked hard for what the have just to give it to people who sit on their tails and collect welfare.Well after this is all over with thise welfare people will as well have nothing no longer.they will be forced to do or not get a dime.

    Get out there and fight!!!!!!!!!! Save your country from this fraud and our own government in the NWO…

    • creeper

      “How do you think this man feels?”

      Unfortunately, I know how he feels. We’re seriously considering closing our machine shop…begun in 1967. We do specialty work for manufacturers. Slowly but surely those manufacturers are closing down and with them, our business. Income right now doesn’t quite cover the cost of operation but we’re dipping into savings, hoping for a miracle.

      Sick, frustrated, sad, confused and angry beyond words…that’s how this man feels.

  • georgiapeach

    There were probably 100 diaries on dKos in 2004, whining about the “real USA” seceeding from “Jesusland”. Any possibility that we can still persuade them to go through with it?

  • Doc99

    This is a major monkey wrench in Obama’s Corporatism – Indiana v Chrysler.

  • I’m a Linda too

    This is just unbelievable..

  • candymarl

    Is this the beginning of a plan to nationalize what’s left of the manufacturing base of the US?

    Inquiring minds need to know.

  • http://noquarter foxyladi14

    that great sucking sound you hear is America going down the drain..

  • alex

    Let’s see, the O has been in office for how long and has used his sledgehammer on how many private companies already? Does this bozo not understand how many people make a living on car businesses? What about people who service cars at the dealer, etc.. Had he done ANYTHING at all to save jobs, had he not used his time to fearmonger, HAD HE JUST LEFT US AUTO COMPANIES ALONE!!! Why NOT give funds to American companies if they need it? It would only have been a temporary use of the money which would have hurt no one. For all those people trying to kick GM I suggest you read “Why GM Matters. Inside the Race to Transform an American Icon” by William J. Holstein and get off your high horse. GM has made many missteps-but they have also done ALOT to help build this nation and they should not have to declare bankruptcy because of the new egomaniac in the presidential office! Besides, the Cadillac is the hottest looking car on the road!
    Where is the fight. How come the gentleman and his dealership is being destroyed. Too bad the morally bankrupt politicians whose job it is to fight for the citizens are not fighting for him? I will try my best to help this man anyway I can.

  • beebop

    Sherrod Brown — the last vote needed who flew back from his mother’s funeral and had NOT READ the bailout — is now talking about “letting the market” talk? Please. I will never vote party again. These Democraps are insufferable. And their dialing back on “traditional” Democratic programs and beliefs has turned this girl into an independent/republican. Please note. No capital letters.