Auto Bailout Update

In a completely unsurprising turn of events, the White House is now considering a Big 3 bailout from TARP funds (the $700 billion financial industry bailout).  Common sense tells us that President Bush simply doesn't want to go down in history as the one who let the auto industry 'collapse' on his watch.  He'll probably twist Czar Paulson's arm to throw enough cash at them to get them through January 20th, thus kicking the whole thing squarely into Obama's court.

My, how brave and principled.

Michelle Malkin puts out the call to drive home the point made yesterday in the Senate to the White House:

The Bush administration apparently didn't understand the message last night.

No means no.

Senate Republicans drew a line in the sand on bailout mania. And now the White House is scrambling to erase it and expand the crap sandwich once more to rescue the UAW.

No means no.

The White House switchboard:

202.456.1414.

Give 'em a call.  One little tidbit you might want to mention to the White House is this:

Dear President Bush:

We repeat: No means no.

And the law is the law.

Read it.

No TARP money for the UAW bailout.

It's illegal.

Stop the bailout cycle.

Follow the law.

Maybe call 'em twice - they appear to need the extra reinforcement.  As my old high school football coach might put it: they can't find their butt with both hands.

Andy McCarthy comments on the subject, as well as a Wall Street Journal article that went up today:

From the WSJ story this morning on the collapse of the auto bailout:

The collapse of the deal raises the stakes for Chrysler and its majority owner, Cerberus Capital Management LP. Lawmakers had called for Cerberus to put more money into the company, but Cerberus maintains it can't because the bylaw of its investment funds prevents it from putting more than a small percentage of its investors' funds into any single investment.... Chrysler Chief Executive Robert Nardelli told Congress the company would be unable to pay suppliers and employees if it doesn't get loans by the end of the month.

So Chrysler's owners say, "You're nuts if you think we're going to throw our money at our loser business model" — they sit on their own wallets, play chicken with their workers and creditors, and expect the idiot taxpayers to say, "No prob — we'll pony up for you." 

All praise to Mitch McConnell for leading the charge that beat back this lunacy.  Can someone explain why the White House thought this was a good idea?

It's unexplainable.  Their butts are apparently invisible or something.  Or, maybe it's that they're looking for their butts down below, when in fact their butts are attached on top of their necks.  That would explain a great deal about the past few years.

There's my two cents.