The Bailout Is Dead, Long Live The Bailout!

The auto bailout/bridge loan/lifeline failed to pass the Senate last night. Some Republicans were trying to get the UAW to make wage concessions, which they unsurprisingly rejected. The Democrat spin is that the evil union busting Republicans don't care about American workers, therefore they will let the economy collapse to help their sinister non union Japanese friends.

The bailout was a bad idea, even if the UAW had agreed to the concessions it would not have made much difference in the long term health of the big three, so I am glad to see it go down. It will be interesting to see who wins the public relations battle that will ensue, I would bet on the Democrats, expect to see a lot of stories about hardworking UAW families struggling to buy the kids Christmas presents.

Any hopes that the Republican party has suddenly regained fiscal sanity should be dashed by this statement from White House Press Secretary Dana Perino:

"Under normal economic conditions we would prefer that markets determine the ultimate state of private firms. However, given the current weakened state of the U.S. economy, we will consider other options if necessary, including use of the TARP (bailout) program to prevent a collapse of troubled automakers."

"A precipitous collapse of this industry would have a severe impact on our economy and it would be irresponsible to further weaken and destabilize our economy at this time,"

Blah, blah, blah, we love free markets, except this time. Irresponsible, collapse, destabilize, etc. It looks like the greedy unions, inept management, and micromanaging bureaucrats will get their cash after all. I'm sure that the Car Czar will be able to turn around decades of horrible business practices and restrictive government standards in no time. I for one am going out and buying a Pontiac Aztek as soon as possible.