Failing and bailing

Have you noticed how much the debate over the auto industry bailout resembles the debate over closing military bases?

All the talk is about job loss and economic harm, with lots of feature stories about the fate of local sandwich shops and dry cleaners. There's little if any discussion of the original purpose of the investment, and whether it's still serving that purpose, or any other.

Rep. Barney Frank told reporters on Tuesday that the bailout legislation has to be written to prevent the Big Three automakers from closing plants in the U.S. and opening new plants somewhere else.

But lawmakers are also demanding that the companies become more efficient and profitable.

We don't need a crystal ball to see where this is going.

The automakers will get federal money in some form, and then if they try to close plants or lay off U.S. workers, alarm bells will go off in Washington and there will be a ferocious effort to pressure the companies to keep the plants open and keep the workers on the payroll.

The members of Congress who represent those workers will thunder about how the companies have wasted the taxpayers' money on executive lunchboxes.

The executives will agree to work for fifty cents a year and skip lunch, and they'll get another bailout and another lecture about becoming more efficient and profitable.

It will be instructive to see who is selected for the post of Car Czar. Will it be an auditor or inspector general type, someone who is experienced at watching the taxpayers' money? Will it be an auto executive who knows something about building and selling cars?

America Wants To Know doesn't think so.

We think it will be a George Mitchell type. The former Senate Majority Leader most recently was tapped to head up Major League Baseball's steroid investigation, and as we said at the time, he's not the kind of guy you call if you want to know what happened. He's the guy you call if you know what happened and you don't want anybody else to find out.

No one in Washington wants the voters to fully realize that taxes are being withheld from their paychecks to subsidize the wages and benefits of people who make twice as much as they do.

If we were wagering, we'd bet that the Car Czar will be George Mitchell, Sam Nunn or James Baker. They've all got that great knack of looking severe and serious in front of the cameras while everyone responsible for the mess escapes through the back door.

In fact, the title shouldn't be Car Czar. It should be Getaway Driver.


Copyright 2008

Editor's note: You might be interested in the earlier posts, "Nancy Pelosi, car designer" and "The fabulous, fictional Chevrolet Volt."

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