What's The Best Place For Your Teen To Learn How...

Republicans and Democrats blame each other for GM collapse

 
6 767 views Jun 9, 2009

The bill will now go to the Senate and if passed will need to be sworn in by president Obama

The bill will now go to the Senate and if passed will need to be sworn in by president Obama

Enlarge Photo
The collapse of General Motors has seen some of the most divergent views on both politics and the automotive industry appear in recent times, and even though the collapse of GM had been predicted for months, if not years, there is still arguing over who was responsible and what American consumers should do about the situation now.

In Washington, senior officials who worked with former President Bush are claiming that new president Barack Obama is as much to blame as anyone else for GM's collapse, due to his support of the Bush government's decision to bail out GM in January. Meanwhile, advocates of Obama claim that the bailout money was given to Detroit simply to prevent the two companies going under while George Bush was in power - in other words, they were given enough money to survive until the new president was sworn in.

Obama's team is claiming that by not putting conditions on the bailout money, the move was little more than a passing of the buck onto the next President. A similar sentiment was expressed by former vice president Dick Cheney, who revealed that the Bush administration didn’t want to be the one to pull the plug on GM.

Whoever was responsible, however, wasn't of much concern to conservatives angry about the government's decision to meddle in the affairs of private companies, calling the new GM a failure of free enterprise. Controversial conservative personality Rush Limbaugh claimed that America doesn't want to support an "Obama company". However, The Detroit News reports that polls are showing 83% of Americans are not planning on boycotting GM in the future.

While Limbaugh never explicitly called for a boycott of GM, his sentiments toward the company were not exactly a resounding appreciation for its survival. A spokesman from the Democratic party expressed surprise that the Republican party was "silently going along" with Limbaugh, especially considering "how many hard working Americans rely on GM for a living."



Tags:
Posted in:
 
Contribute
Send us a tip Comment Contact the editor
Follow Us

 

Have an opinion?Join the conversation!

  • Posting indicates you have read this site's Privacy Policy and Terms of Use
  • Notify me when there are more comments
Comments (6)

  1. ma_NoNameDenton avatar NoNameDenton Posted: 6/9/2009 5:53am PDT

    It is everyone's fault, and we tax payers are stuck with the consequences
     
    Post Reply
    Vote
    Bad stuff?

  2. ma_G-Man avatar G-Man Posted: 6/9/2009 7:29am PDT

    Its the fault of the Unions at GM being greedy and one more step towards Soclialism in the USA Obama and his crew is slowly destroying the fabric of this Country.
     
    Post Reply
    Vote
    Bad stuff?

  3. ma_brum08 avatar brum08 Posted: 6/9/2009 8:52am PDT

    I was pretty sure it was only GM's fault. The government isn't there to run businesses. Blame Wagoner and Gettelfinger, not republicans or democrats.The only thing you can blame them for is being dumb enough to think they could give them money to save them.
     
    Post Reply
    Vote
    Bad stuff?

  4. ma_NC2010 avatar NC2010 Posted: 6/9/2009 8:59am PDT

    Its the fault of the Unions at GM being greedy ....

    Why does the press mostly avoid making this point, do you suppose? I can understand why politicians avoid telling this truth, but why the press?
     
    Post Reply
    Vote
    Bad stuff?

  5. ma_Jim avatar Jim Posted: 6/9/2009 9:58am PDT

    The scarlet letter of guilt for GM's situation should be issued to all those who served as corporate executives and members of the board of directors since the early 70's. They are the ones who made the lousy decisions, and who bought off the unions with ridiculous contracts because they feared taking a strike would cost a point or two of market share and kicked the costs down the road to pump up that quarter's financials.

    As far as the union is concerned, they were simply acting as rational maximizers for their members and got as much as possible at the time and they've fought like hell to keep it.

    Some how, G-man and NC2010, I doubt if your bosses were willing to pay you 50% more for half as much work you'd turn them down because it would hurt the company down the road.

    The unions didn't cause GM's problems, GM's management did.
     
    Post Reply
    Vote
    Bad stuff?

  6. ma_Tall Paul avatar Tall Paul Posted: 6/9/2009 10:13am PDT

    The buck doesn't stop at the Union. The buck stops at the leadership of GM and the US gov't. Now we all know the government has policies that support the Unions (which give them too much negotiating power). But this has been going on for years and years. GM just kept plodding along with no contigency plans whatsoever. Everybody says the auto companies were producing the wrong products? Only partly true. It was the entire business model and US tax and labor policies.

    The problem is that our tax policies promote spending all profits. If a company wants to create a "bank account" for future investments (or a rainy day fund) it has to pay more taxes than if the money was spent. Remember after 9/11 and the airline industry was down 10%, and they all shouted bankruptcy? If companies can't weather a temporary 10% drop in revenue then you're always going to have problems. Much less the gargantuan drop the auto industry has seen.
     
    Post Reply
    Vote
    Bad stuff?

 

Have an opinion?Join the conversation!

Connect with Facebook

Motor Authority. Now with your friends.

Discover stories your friends read.
Share stories more easily.
You control what you share.
Learn more

Research New Cars

Go!


More from High Gear Media

 
 
MotorAuthority
  • Follow Us
  • Twiiter
  • Facebook
 
 
© 2011 MotorAuthority. All Rights Reserved. MotorAuthority is published by High Gear Media. Stock photography by Homestar, LLC. Send us feedback.