Obama To Detroit City; Drop Dead

[FlyingJ]

Stickin' it to the UAW Health Plan? Thus Won't End Well;

http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124035637935940943.html

[MIRepublic]

Detroit as a moniker for the domestic auto industry? Yeah, sure. It's been plainly obvious for some time, now. Detroit "City" as in the "municipality of Detroit/Detroit city government"? No, and I'm a bit confused why you'd even add it as if he's made or even implied a public judgement on Detroit as a municipal unit. The addition of "city" knowing that Detroit City collectively means city government was just such an odd choice of a term.

[Novine]

It's more conservative claptrap. The WSJ is trying to claim that if only Obama stood out of the way, the bondholders and unions would hold hands and sing Kumbaya while Americans would rush in to buy GM products in a way that they haven't been doing. Obama isn't telling GM how to run their business. He's telling them that they can no longer stick their heads in the sand, at least not on the US taxpayers dollar.

[R8RBOB]

After reading the article which was more satire than informal, it appears that the creater of this thread wants Detroit to drop dead, not the president. The writer of that piece did not mention Detroit once in his article. So, why would Obama want the city of Detroit to drop dead? Is there anyway to delete this nonsense?

[Mikeg]

I'm not going to try defending the original poster's addition of the word "city" in the thread title, but honestly, some of the reaction to this article is "over the top".

It's an undeniable fact that a GM bankruptcy [["surgical" or otherwise, they're the same thing) won't end well for the city of Detroit, the state of Michigan, the UAW or GM's many retirees. It's also clear that so far, the money loaned to GM by the executive branch of the Federal Government - and the many strings that are seemingly attached to it - have had little impact on creating the sense of urgency that is needed to cause all parties to come to an agreement and avoid a Chapter 11 filing by GM.

First off, the article did use the word "Detroit", but as a euphemism for GM, Chrysler and Ford.

Secondly, an attempt to dismiss the points made in this article by labeling it "conservative claptrap" or "satire" shows that you probably didn't fully read the article [[or else you would have seen the word "Detroit") and that you are letting your political views blind you from some economic realities.

Unlike the recent spike in oil and gasoline prices, the Federal Government's CAFE laws never saved a single drop of foreign or domestic oil [[it has enabled drivers to drive more miles per year on the same budget). If President Obama actually believes what he says [["the only sensible way to reduce fossil-fuel dependence is to put a price on it"), then he is admitting that it makes no sense to continue with the CAFE regulations.

How can you make the claim that President "Obama isn't telling GM how to run their business" when in fact he [[along with a complicit Congress) has told them to:
a) fire their CEO
b) eliminate certain divisions and products and keep others in their product line-up
c) increase the fuel economy of the fleet they sell, regardless of what consumers are willing or able to buy
d) give equity positions to their lenders and suppliers of parts and labor in return for voiding contractual agreements and writing-off promises of cash payments
e) leave all of the other provisions of their contract with the UAW intact, except for the VEBA
f) do all of the above and make a profit - but only after they pay back the money the government loaned them, possibly in the form of equity in the company, which reads to me like a threat of nationalizing the company.

What you have here is in effect the executive branch of the Federal government directing a defacto GM bankruptcy case as a condition of making a temporary loan [[while also dictating some non-economic issues), instead of the typical Federal government role where the judicial branch oversees the bankruptcy case in a court of law and without meddling in non-economic issues.

[iheartthed]

Well, if it hadn't been for the executive branch, the legislative branch would have let "Detroit" drop dead months ago.