This would have occured if our leaders would have listened to the people who objected to the bailouts that began with bush, and continued with the current administration that made the problem even worse.......the main problem is liberal democrats who see socialism as a way out. If we do not want this problem to continue, vote these people out....pelosi and gang

Ya and these same people don't give a rats ass about what happens to middle class Americans they just want to keep getting there 60,000 a year like McCain from the Goverment for disability. And they got all the money they stolled from the stock market and all the CEO's got from the banks. Then they walk around saying they want to help Joe the plummer, Screw you.

If the money is good enough to bail out Iraq, then it is good enough to bail out GM and any American company employing Americans.
Since when did Republicans ever care about deficits anyway, certainly not under Reagan, Bush I or Bush II.
The hypocrite Party continues with its doom, gloom and fear predictions based upon lies, deceit, divisiveness and incompetence.
Got Family Values? Got anything other than than old failed ideas?
That's why you're out and the Democrats are in!

Agreed that both GM and Chrysler should have been allowed to fall. They would'nt have disappeared though and today they would have already been back on their feet, starting the rebuild, and we, the taxpayers would not be out billions. Another example of how Government should stay out of the private sector. Let the system work.

I suspect Bush would have let GM and Chrysler go belly up had it NOT been an election year. Any Bush move to let GM and Chrysler go Chapter 11 would been dragged out until after the election. Bush letting GM and Chrysler go to chapter 11 would have been made a HUGE campaign issue. The pro-democrat unions would have run to Obama and significantly hurt McCains chances to win.

I suspect Bush passed the buck until after the election to give McCain a chance.

Obama trashed over 260 years of precedent and used billions in bondholders money to finance a UAW stake in GM and Chrysler. Had Obama allowed GM and Chrysler to go to chapter 11 the pro-democrat UAW would have been dissolved as a political force.

Obama preserved a segment of the pro-democrat political base that is the UAW with 'thank you very much' bondholder money.

The UAW is now caught in a trap of how to run a profitable business while getting the most for their union members. The UAW must chew its own leg off to survive. No more "job banks."

We now have a bunch of Obama rookies with little or NO business experience and NO automotive experience mandating our domestic auto industry build small "green" cars. As the imports build big V8 pickups like the Titan and Tundra, SUV's like the Sequoia and Land Cruiser lets hope they did not 'GUESS WRONG ON THAT ONE' again.

Respectfully,
Pete

Wow! Talk about taking the high road. This article completely ignores the thousands of good paying jobs lost, not to mention the thousands of retired auto workers dumped on the governments pension insurance system. On top of the auto jobs millions of smaller companies that depend on the auto companies go belly up! Oh, but don't worry! Some fictitious electric car manufacturer will save the day! What a bunch of rose colored hogwash!

Wow! Talk about taking the high road. This article completely ignores the thousands of good paying jobs lost, not to mention the thousands of retired auto workers dumped on the governments pension insurance system. On top of the auto jobs millions of smaller companies that depend on the auto companies go belly up! Oh, but don't worry! Some fictitious electric car manufacturer will save the day! What a bunch of rose colored hogwash!

Pete, do you even know how the jobs banks were created or why? When NAFTA was passed and GM couldn't run to Mexico fast enough to build factories, the UAW tried to slow the loss of American jobs by getting GM to agree to the jobs bank in the national contract. The idea was the car companies would keep the jobs in the US rather than pay people to not work. (Though many in the jobs banks did a lot of good work in their respective communities) Well, the company was saving so much money exploiting the Mexican workers, it just paid the people in the jobs banks to sit. The jobs bank was a good idea in theory, but it did not work to stem job losses to Mexico. Nobody ever asked to go into the jobs bank and every one of those workers would rather be out on the line doing the jobs they were hired to do. But the point is moot now. They are on the street with no job and a family to support. NAFTA finally put them out of work. That probably makes you very happy:(

Does Elvis come back, too?

Roby,

In a global economy the UAW is competing with workers ALL OVER THE WORLD to make a car. In the 1960's GM made something on the order of over 60% of all cars sold in the US. Those days and the leverage the UAW had are OVER.

For decades the cost of manufacturing cars in overseas plants and shipping to the US and then distributing them across the US offset the high labor costs in the US.
The imports started moving manufacturing to the US, "exploiting" US workers with good paying jobs primarily
the South.
Until recently the average UAW auto worker received $72 per hour in TOTAL compensation. (TC= wages, health benefits, vacation time, sick time, 401K etc etc etc).
Many Non union auto workers in southern import auto plants are VERY HAPPY to be "exploited" and receive $42 per hour in total compensation.
GM made 9.2 million cars a LOST billions. Toyota made 9.5 million cars and MADE billions in profits.

The UAW simply priced themselves out of a job just as union workers did to the steel industry, and the airlines.

If you needed a roof on your house would pay double the going rate to have union workers put the roof on your house. It was BAD business to price yourself out of a job as the imports moved into the US over the past several decades. It is not like this happened overnight.

Our auto makers cost cutting resulted in peeling paint, lots of plastic, and cars that just wear out faster than the imports. It is good business to cut costs and that FINALLY means the UAW.

Sorry Roby, I hope you and your family are OK.

Respectfully,
Pete

HEY pete read the news toyota lost 7.3 billion last quarter that was more than GM DID.

OZ

Those stats are from last fall. The point is GM is bankrupt and Toyota is not....yet.

Respectfully,
Pete

Thank you for the kind comments Joedenver60..

Respectfully,
Pete

nice dream no way to that is what have happened could have all been in soup lines aswell

Oz
2:23PM Jul 2nd 2009
HEY pete read the news toyota lost 7.3 billion last quarter that was more than GM DID.

Hey Oz Honda made a profit. Toyota lost money becasue of slumping sales not because of stupid management and greedy union members.

Slumping demand has hit all the major auto makers, and Toyota is no exception.

Unfortunately, the Japanese auto maker does not foresee things turning around anytime soon. During fiscal 2009 the company saw a 15.1% drop in vehicle sales to 7.57 million vehicles. Looking at 2010, Toyota is now expecting to sell even fewer autos, stating that its 2010 target is now 6.5 million vehicles. This would mark a pretty hefty 14.1% annual drop.

Just imagine what GM will project?

I will predict that GM wil no longer exist in 24 months.

I will also predict Toyota will be in business in 24 months

The other big Japanese auto maker is, of course, Honda (NYSE: HMC). Unlike Toyota, Honda as recently as last week announced that it expects to see a full year profit this year, mainly on the back of its strong motorcycle segment.

WOW WOKE UP FROM A NAP BUSH STILL IN THE WHITEHOUSE,WHAT A DREAM

The liberals like to blather about how we should be like the rest of the world, until that means losing a political advantage.

They want to have Cap and Trade, just like Europe, (except it failed miserably in Europe), because it gives the left more power over the means of production.

They want socialized health care, like in Europe and Canada, even though it has basically been a failure in every instance and has directly led to an unnecessary increase in deaths from very treatable diseases. It has also been massively costly, and hated by people who suffer under it. Europe and Canada are looking at ways to be more like us. They better hurry, Obama and the left can't get enough failure, and soon we'll be failing like them.

They want the world to love us, but don't want to have to compete on a level playing field, because the unions are spoiled, and so are union members. Now reality has finally set in and something has to give. Either unions accept lower wages and benefits, or the company fails and ALL jobs are lost. It's a GLOBAL economy, accept it or die. Why do liberals only like the word "global" when it is associated with outdated scientific theories about global warming and Co2?

Why aren't liberals for the European educational philosophy, since they want to be European on everything else? In most countries in Europe, children are separated into groups according to aptitude and intelligence at a fairly early age, and are set on a path that is suited to their needs, according to their specific capabilities. They don't try to send everyone to college, like Obama is promising. They don't let Teachers unions ruin the educational system either.

It seems America's liberals want to emulate everything Europe has already done, as long as it has already failed.