Monday, January 12, 2009

Blowhard Barney

It looks like Congressman Barney Frank (D-MA) is up to his antics again (will we EVER be rid of this moron?). GM is once again asking Congress for more bailout money, although it's not sure exactly how much more than the $13.4 billion previously allocated by the Treasury Department. GM's COO says that the company is certain that it will negotiate concessions with the UAW, including a reduction in labor and health costs. Under the guidelines for the bailout, the automakers have until February 17th to hammer out the details of how they will cut labor costs to be more in line with foreign auto manufacturers in the US. However, UAW President Ron Gettelfinger has said the union will approach President-elect Barack Obama's administration to end what he called unfair requirements in the loan terms for concessions from the union.

U.S. Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., has proposed getting rid of a requirement that GM and Chrysler negotiate labor cost parity with foreign-owned automakers that have U.S. factories.

Hourly wages for UAW workers at GM factories already are about equal tothe average of $30 per hour Toyota Motor Corp. pays at its older U.S. factories, according to the companies. But including benefits and the cost of providing health care to retirees, the Detroit automaker saysits total labor cost is around $69 per hour, compared with an all-inclusive cost of $53 per hour at Toyota.

Would someone from Barney's 4th congressional district in MA please call his office and inform him that he works for his constituents, NOT the UAW? His number is (202)225-5931.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Continuing from our prior dialogue, Mad Mom, I agree that it's "We the people". That certainly was evident when over 52%of "We the people" gave Obama his mandate for CHANGE.
Our country is hurting big time and Obama offers the best chance to straighten things out. He knows that the economy is priority #1. Watch him mix the the right portions of cuts and spending over the next 100 days to start us out of the crisis and on the way to stability.

Anonymous said...

My main concern about the "mandate for CHANGE" is that it's essentially a blank screen that encourages anyone to just project their own notion of what that change ought to be onto it. Change for the sake of changing. Unfortunately, the mainstream media was the big enabler in this fraud.

It ought to be painfully obvious to anyone that Obama is utterly clueless as to how to "fix" our economy, for example. He's even getting push-back now from some in his own party on his so-called bailout idea.

I think the big story coming out of the 2008 election is the role that the media played, and will continue to play. Here's a real shocker for you:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k_QJj1z9lf8

Mad Mom said...

Another big concern for me is the $1 Trillion blank check Obama and the Congress are intent on spending. Once they floated that number, and nobody complained, that became like some sort of baseline figure. So when Obama's tax credits were criticized, instead of saying, let's not spend that $300 billion of taxpayer money, Congress just reallocates the funds to other programs. Who says they have to spend $1 Trillion? These dumbos are like kids in a candy store with $10; saving some of the money is not even an option in their minds.

Anonymous said...

kids in a candy store? More like thieves running amok in Fort Knox.

Mad Mom said...

How true. Thieves indeed.