I Agree With Obama...

...that the automotive industry plans from Chrysler and General Motors were not acceptable.
But that is where I stop agreeing with him and his administration over this fiasco.

Finally someone in Washington has taken it upon themselves to read a document that has been placed in front of them. I posted a month ago that these plans were lacking in substance and direction. Now Obama says that these companies can no longer receive any more of your money to survive. Wait, that is for at least another 60 days for GM and 30 days for Chrysler to fix their plans. Once you receive government welfare you are not allowed to get off that welfare until the government has tried to find ways to keep you on it. I will wager that at the end of these time frames both companies will be given another 30 days as an appeal and an appeal to the appeal if it does not turn out in their favor.

Big "O" has finally used the "B" word (bankruptcy) with regards to the automotive industry. Although his administration is calling it a 'court supervised' process. I believe that the Obama's minions have finally wised up that they can save face and let a judge be in charge of the automotive problems thus removing Obama from any possible UAW showdown. Obama is a big union supporter and he keeps stating that all 'stakeholders' must come to the sacrificial table in order for these companies to survive. In other words you gotta give up something to get something. By letting a judge decide who gives up something he can lay the blame anywhere but at the Oval Office door.

Obama has clearly decided that Washington knows how to run the automotive industry better than those "wily veterans" that have been doing it for sometime now. He asked for the immediate resignation of the GM CEO, Rick Wagoner while leaving Chrysler CEO, Bob Nardelli in position. The automotive task force has concluded that GM is still relying to much on the sales of 'high margin' trucks and SUV's (profit is not allowed by Washington) and that Chrysler's best hope is to merge with another company, Italian automaker Fiat (will that make Chrysler an Italian automaker and ineligible for bailout money?). Obama has indicated that automotive companies must "thrive by building cars of tomorrow." Yet those same hybrid green vehicles are tough to sell these days. When gas prices were above $4 per gallon these cars were hot items. Now that the price of gasoline is hovering around $2 per gallon hybrid cars are clogging up dealer inventories.

The government has long insisted upon automobiles meeting certain MPG standards but they now are telling automakers exactly what kind of vehicles to make. In short consumers focus on present day realities not carbon emission fallacies. Gasoline prices will dictate what people buy not Washington, unless they force all of the automakers to only produce green vehicles. The good news is that if you purchase a green vehicle you can get a tax credit and a deduction of the new-car sales tax. The sales tax deduction is part of the $787-billion stimulus bill. But at present day gasoline prices you must be willing to wait for sometime to offset the additional cost of these green vehicles versus the amount of money you will save on fuel.

Maybe the Obama administration will create artificial demand for these products by temporarily drying up the gasoline supply thus causing gasoline prices to rise and the fair weather moonbats to go searching for hybrid cars again. Remember that when W. left office gasoline prices had dropped to their lowest level in 4 years. So if they rise again it will be Obama's fault not Bush's.

That's my word! Please post yours!