Subsidizing Failure : Die GM!

Under the system formerly known as Capitalism, companies were allowed to go under when they failed to meet the needs of the marketplace. When GM and the other American automakers embarked upon the road of producing inferior products while allowing the powerful and politically connected unions to break their backs these companies should have been shed like so many dead cells.

An example of Capitalism I use to explain to my children is the humble granola bar factory. If a granola bar factory can produce a better tasting product for cheaper than their rival then why would anyone have use for an overpriced granola bar tasting of sawdust? Such a factory would surely shut down in a free market. Decades of mismanagement has lead GM and the other automakers down this road. The axiom of capitalism is "let the market decide". By propping up the American car makers who have squandered their market share, we encourage irresponsible corporate behavior. American car manufacturers have lost to their (largely Japanese and Korean) counterparts. The market has spoken. Instead of investing in quality products that the market wants, American automakers continued to crank out inferior inventory that is not moving.

The Obama administration has propped up General Motors and is glad to do so. Who else could pull off ousting the president of GM all the while blustering that the US government has "no interest in running GM"? Obama and his thugs could not wait to get their hands on GM and has graciously announced that the federal government is backing the warranties of GM products. This is fantastic. We are going to use tax dollars to guarantee the pieces of shit that the failed American automakers have produced in their dying years. Anyone else feel as if this is perhaps not the smartest investment? Ostensibly this is to give consumers confidence in GM product warranties so consumers will buy GM products. Hello? Consumers are confident about the Hondas and Toyotas they purchase. Government backing of a crappy American product with tax dollars will inspire no one.

I had some personal experience with this when my family was shopping for our first new automobile purchase four years ago. We very much wanted to buy American, and spent quite a bit of time researching the best minivan for our family. It became quickly apparent that there were no minivan products with a five-star safety rating in both front and side impact manufactured in America. Allow me to extend a personal thank you to GM for making me choose between my family's safety and our patriotism.

In the case of Chrysler, the US government has decided that a merger with Fiat is just the thing to bring around this failed automaker and has made this merger (or an alternate plan for viability) the condition for further government aid. This is the pattern of the Obama administration. The government gets more power and the taxpayer gets less of their paycheck to make it happen. In an interview with "Face the Nation", Obama expressed his administration's belief that the U.S. can have a successful auto industry. One that is going to emerge "much more lean, mean and competitive than it currently is" Does anyone else see a contrast between what is being said and what is happening? On what planet does the government who is nationalizing whole industries (i.e. banking and auto) increase competition?

In less than three months, the Obama administration has bloated the United States government's role almost beyond recognition. And the U.S. government is going to assist the automakers to become "lean and mean"? Really? Really? Bloated government agencies intervening in the manufacturing sector of our economy is going to result in a leaner and more competitive industry? How?

Already, the Obama administration has made it clear that they will use this opportunity to ensure that the automakers produce the cars that the government (not the market) wants them to produce while eliminating profitable automotive products that are not in line with the leftist agenda. Eleven of the twenty most profitable products GM sells are the "pickups and SUVs" which GM has publicly apologized for producing. The two best selling vehicles in the U.S. are the Ford F-Series and the Chevy Silverado.

Our federal lawmakers want to subsidize the Chevy Volt (ten years too late to market) with a $7500 tax rebate. To be fair, the government was handing out tax breaks for SUVs not too long ago, but the government has no business regulating the free market. Government has proven itself competent at waste, fraud and mismanagement of funds.

A significant portion of the blame for the mortgage meltdown was a direct result of the U.S. government telling the banks to loan money to unqualified applicants and then "guaranteeing" these crappy loans with tax dollars. As a final straw, the bankrupt automakers are now promising to make the auto payments of those individuals who lose their jobs "through no fault of their own". How are these bankrupt organizations going to make these auto payments? Ahh yes, by paying for people's new cars with tax dollars.

I am driving a 1998 compact with over one hundred thousand miles on it, but I am going to subsidize new car purchases for Americans that would otherwise be unable to purchase a new car. When their employers take advantage of the economic downturn to shed the "dead cells" from their workforce, these incompetent consumers will reach into my pocket to pay for their new cars that they never should have purchased. By preventing the free market from functioning the way it should, I can proudly subsidize their family's meals, transportation and housing all on the federal teat.

American automakers should go the way of American television manufacturers, American buggy whip manufacturers and the newspaper. But thanks for the apology.

fiddling and diddling as America burns

There are so many problems with the so-called stimulus bill it is pathetic. In addition to being laden with more pork than a McDonald's Mc-Rib sandwich the size of Kentucky, the "American Recovery and Reinvestment Act" has (among other pet projects) provisions for the following that are sure to get America and Americans back on their feet:

2.8 billion dollars for global warming alarmists

650 million dollars for digital TV converter box coupons

300 million dollars for electric cars for government officials (including golf carts)

150 million dollars to pretty up the Smithsonian buildings

400 million dollars for anti-smoking programs and sexually transmitted disease prevention

30 million dollars to protect the habitat of a salt marsh field mouse (in San Francisco)

How befitting that congress should jam this down our collective throats on Friday the 13th? The house passed Obama's stinker even after promising to make it available in an "electronically searchable format" 48 hours before voting on it. Someone in congress had to appreciate the irony of not being able to even read this stinking mass before they voted on it, and on the most unluckiest of all days. Not one republican supported the measure in the house of representatives. Not one republican supported the bill in my house, either, but it is destined to become law.

There is a often-repeated historical tale of Nero the Roman emperor playing the fiddle as Rome burned. This is not held to be historically accurate as the fiddle, supposedly, was created many hundreds of years after the fire. That said, the image of an emperor "playing the fiddle as Rome burns" is a powerful description of those in power having little regard for the real suffering of their constituents.

In order to swallow this analogy, one has to picture Obama as an emperor. OK.

Nero was truly an early liberal opportunist, as he built a 100-300 acre palace on the ground peppered in the ash of his people and their homes. Taking advantage of a tragedy is the true earmark (wink wink) of the modern liberal opportunist too. In the end, arson or accident does not matter to the fire's victims. They're gone. The arsonists who created this particular fiscal fire that rages in the American homeland were hardcore leftists in the Carter administration who forced banks to give home loans to unworthy Americans.

That's right, unworthy. Unworthy means, (liberals: this is for you!) not deserving. That's right. Liberals: think about this. Some Americans don't deserve to buy a home. Even though owning a home is the American dream, not everyone deserves to own one. Here's the kicker, liberals: the criteria for owning a home has nothing to do with what color your skin is or where your pappy is from. The Americans who don't deserve a home loan are those who cannot afford to pay back the loans! If this means that a bank in a predominately hispanic or black neighborhood can't give out loans to most of the hispanics or blacks who apply for a loan at their bank, this is not racist, it is common sense, and fiscally responsible behavior.

Even though we know who set this particular modern fire, let's put that aside and focus on the rape of the taxpayer after the fire. At least one-tenth of Rome was burned, by historical accounts. Nero did open his palaces to those who were homeless (free housing) and provided food to those who would starve (welfare) while he built a new palace on the burned areas (pork project) while blaming the Christians for the "arson" (misdirection and scapegoating of the enemies of the state). There was a "report" of Nero having set the fire himself. As a result, Nero burned Christians, crucified them, or sent them to be thrown to the dogs, according to Tacitus,

"Consequently, to get rid of the report, Nero fastened the guilt and inflicted
the most exquisite tortures on a class hated for their abominations, called
Christians by the populace"

Nero wanted a new palace built in the center of Rome and took advantage of the fire to fulfill his pet project at the expense of the Roman people. He raised taxes to fund his pork project. Our modern eco-friendly liberals would applaud his enterprising and green solution for renewable energy. Rather than harnessing messy fossil fuels or economically unfeasible and unproven wind or solar power, Tacitus again describes Nero's treatment of the Christians,

"Mockery of every sort was added to their deaths. Covered with the skins of beasts, they were torn by dogs and perished, or were nailed to crosses, or were doomed to the flames and burnt, to serve as a nightly illumination, when daylight had expired."

Well done. No, literally. those Christians were well-done!

Nothing provides soft white reading light like a Christian!

Hey diddle diddle! If only Obama was just playing the fiddle while America burned. Perhaps my liberal colleagues with a brain would offer here a comment about those who go shoe shopping during natural disasters or those who read books to children during terrorist attacks on our country.

Not to be outdone by inappropriate behavior during disasters (conservatives, I kid!), liberals use this "historic opportunity" (they love this phrase) to fund and enrich every liberal legislative pork and bbq-sauce wet-dream project ever known to Nancy Pelosi and her gang of partisan thugs. A $30 million dollar earmark for salt marsh mouse habitat restoration and golf carts for government officials is reprehensible. Promising people a chance to see and read the bill before it goes to vote and then immediately forcing the vote is un-American. Labelling this legislation the "American Recovery and Reinvestment Act" is downright disgusting. (Note: I didn't say "surprising").

Nero is perhaps best known for being his disgusting and depraved sexual proclivities, and I am not above making this kind of comparison to the modern emperors in our government (even since Bill Clinton left office.) However, I find it important to note:

The legend that Nero "fiddled" while Rome burned began many centuries after Nero's time and is referring to how Nero fiddled away his time on frivololity. As a noun, "fiddle" came to refer to a violin (not invented for many centuries after the great fire of Rome), but as a verb, "fiddle" originally meant to avoid one's responsibilities, or to commit fraud. Befitting?

The Romans were free of Nero when he committed suicide at age 31. When will we be free of our oppressive emperors? After the great fire of Rome, the plight of the Christians did not matter to those who were now ash buried under Nero's shining new temple. Perhaps we will be so to those who inherit America after it is ravaged by the great fiscal fire of 2009 AD.

God have mercy on us all. And the salt marsh harvest mouse, too.