Let Them Eat Cake

The auto bailout bill, which passed the House in a 237-170 vote on Wednesday, was defeated in a 52-35 procedural vote in the Senate late Thursday night after negotiations between automakers, the UAW, and Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) fell apart.

“As far as the failure of last night, it solely lies on UAW,” Coburn told CNSNews.com. “All we asked was, ‘Just give us a date at which you will have competitive wage rates. We will put it in and that’s what you will have to meet.’ They would not move. They would not renegotiate their contract with GM as far as wage rates.”

Coburn was referring to an amendment crafted by Corker that would have required the auto makers to reduce their labor costs to a level equal to the salaries paid by non-unionized foreign auto companies operating in the United States, firms such as Nissan, Toyota and Honda.

Yes, I am shocked that the United Auto Workers would rather take my money than lower their wages and make the Big 3 competitive.

I heard on The Peter Heck Show that the Big 3 auto workers make, counting benefits, 70+ dollars per hour, while Americans working in Toyota, Nissan and other non-unionized American auto plants make 40 dollars per hour.

So I'm wondering how I'm going to work up some compassion, and support a bailout, so that the UAW guys can continue making more money than I make.

My job, that required four years of college, pays (I figure) close to what the Toyota and Nissan guys make, maybe a little more... Or possibly less. Over the years, the hospital where I work has cut certain benefits and done its best to keep our wages at a rate that allows us to remain in the black. We have no union and our hospital competes for customers, and professional and unskilled workers, with hospitals and businesses around us.

I don't know what the answer is for the Big 3. But I know they can't compete while paying what they pay their workers. If the UAW continues its irrational stance, then bankruptcy will certainly follow at some point, and I do not see the logic of prolonging the idiocy by strapping our taxpayers with a bailout.

....