Brianwp, it always amuses me that the Democrats blame the Republicans for being "in the pocket" of Big Business when it was a Democrat who bailed out GM and Chrysler. Of course we all know that the Big Business in this case was actually Big Labor and he did it for the votes. (How's that workin' out for ya Mr. Prez?)
So now he wants to bail out Big Medicine (read Big Insurance). Don't need to ask how that will work. The 9-11 survivors better get their money while they can.
I might be totally losing the plot here Officer Jack (please forgive me if I am) but didn't General Motors and Chrysler come within a whisker of going belly up in the final quarter of 2008 and the first quarter of 2009? GM went into Chapter 11 Bankrupcy in June 2009 and is now mainly the property of US taxpayers. GM and Chrysler employ several hundred thousand American workers and support a figure in the young millions on pensions and healthcare benefits in the domestic US alone. I presume you aren't concerned about the many many overseas workers they employ and their welfare although you would be naive to think dumping the overseas workers would have a beneficial effect on the US economy.
The phrase "too big to fail" has been heard a lot too often in the last few years and it reflects badly on the governments (not just the US government) and on the regulators and on the competition watchdogs who were asleep whilst these banks and multi-national corporations becaame "too big to fail." Incidentally, that did not happen on Mr Obama's watch, but in his former life as a Senator he is not exempt from blame. Neither is former President Clinton. This was not exclusively a Republican mess: politicians tend to think that if they can successfully pin the blame on someone else, it means the problem has been solved, but it doesn't. However, I really cannot see that allowing these behemoths, GM and Chrysler, to collapse and cease trading a la Enron would have been a terribly good idea. The knock on effects on the US (and world) economy would have been drastic.
What Mr Obama did was to prevent a huge immediate crisis which would have kicked America when she was already down. You can tell yourself that it was a bribe to Big Labor (sic) if you want to: my own view is that he acted in the national interest like a President is supposed to. Incidentally, as a British citizen, I think he did the whole world economy a really big favour but it's my opinion and your opinion is every bit as valid as mine.
One comment I would make. GM and Chrysler have been sick, unprofitable and in danger of collapse for many years. This crisis was waiting to happen, any time a serious recession came along. Partly this is the fault of blockheads like Rick Wagoner, whose name ironically hints at the product mix of technologically backward-looking SUVs and pick-up trucks which went down like anthrax biscuits with US customers as soon as the world oil price started to rise. But another, more deep rooted structural issue is that GM alone was providing private healthcare for 1.1 million employees, ex-employees and dependents, not to mention unfunded pension liabilities. The chickens of off-balance-sheet-finance were coming home to roost. By dumping the responsibility of funding healthcare onto private/corporate employers the US taxpayer keeps the official cost of government and consequent tax bill down but it's smoke and mirrors. The cost of turning healthcare into a tax on employment is paid in grossly uncompetitive US labour costs, jobs exported to more competitive labour markets, US companies unable to compete and survive, soaring unemployment figures (the unemployed lose theirhelathcare benefits don't they?) and now in the case of GM and Chrysler the bill has found its way back to the taxpayer afer all.
Your existing settlement between government and the citizen is based on unsound economic assumptions and there will be bail-out after bail-out, corporate collapse after corporate collapse, until the message is received and understood, and uncompetitive burdens are taken off the shoulders of American industry. It's nice to have a high-benefit/low tax society if you can get it, but the US companies who have been picking up the tab are looking awfully pale now, from all that loss of blood.
Compensation for 9/11 victims is a fleabite. Healthcare costs are a stake through the heart.
