The Big Three Go To Washington

So the dems win and the Big 3 finally get the meeting with the White House they've been waiting for. Hank Paulson, Cheney, and Bush sit down and talk about what it means to make a car in America. It means an extra $1000 per car in health care for General Motors. I think they boiled it down to three things:


1. You have got to do some thing about the health care crisis in this country.

2. You have to throw some (aka a lot of) money at ethanol gas stations so that we can use our existing technology to look clean and helpful to the environment.

3. You have to talk tough to Japan, Korea, and China to get them to stop propping up their currencies and closing their borders to American products.

I think there is no chance that the White House will be able to tackle the first issue. Our health care in this country is a mess and business shares an unfair burden. We can't even offer a health care package to our empoyees yet, and the Aflac just didn't cut it. The main issue that I see wrong with the American auto industry is health care, and until something drastically different is done, they will continue to lose potential R&D and design money to prior obligations. This again falls into the argument of this generation being impoverished by the baby boomers...another whole post...sorry.

The second issue is just pork barrel politics that may move the alternative energy engine along, but 80% of the money is just going to go to waste, but the 20% may give the Big Three some time to develop better ethanol engines, eventually better hybrids and maybe even hydrogen, meanwhile, they can use this as a hook to sell cars.

The last issue is another bit of protectionist politics, although there is no question China is doing it, the Dems will probably push this brand of protectionist politics to cater to a disenfranchised unemployed manufacturing base, but that's the nature of the political beast. The Chinese should loosen their control on the currency, and the Japanese and Koreans should open up their markets more as well.

Mainly, I think that if the Japanese can make good cars here in the United States than the Americans can too. The only difference between the Japanese & Koreans and the Americans is health care and legacy costs. One problem can be eventually solved by the US Government, but both problems can be solved by bankruptcy.

For more info on the subject...

http://biz.yahoo.com/ap/061114/bush_automakers.html?.v=14