Obama, the Republican 5th Column?

[Mishka]

Abe, better look in the mirror when you say that. I didn't defend Fannie or Freddie, whic are semi public corps. The banks should have down their due diligence and not been bailed out under such favorable conditions. GM and Chrysler should have gone under Chap 7 and been sold off. The govt shouldn't be pcking favorites.

Yes. And fuck all the millions upon millions of people whose jobs were with those companies.
A horrible economic depression with millions of roving and hungry homeless is preferable by far to any gummit gitten thar dirty hands in those corperations' bidness.

From a post I made here earlier that could explain the governments biggest reason for the Automaker Bailout

A supposedly true anecdote that I read on Slashdot. I may have forgotten one or two details, but it made amazing sense when I read it.

Say there is a smallish manufacturing company in the US, they do still exist, you know. Basically all this small company manufactures are ball bearings. Let's call them Bearing Co since the original poster didn't name the company (his father worked for them). They are very, very good at what they do. They have insinuated themselves as the main ball bearing supplier for two of the American auto manufactures. Now this market is nice & niche, but it's not quite big enough on it's own to keep the factories running. Manufacturing is expensive. Bearing Co. also makes ball bearings for the US Navy, Boeing, etc. Highly precise bearings that are used in things like submarine props, aircraft carriers & F-18s. They may not be the only US manufacturer of ball bearings, but they are the only ones that are certified to make these military grade & sometimes top secret ball bearings. Having customers on both sides of the civilian / military fence is the only way Bearing Co. can keep it's factories running. If it's civilian side loses it's one of it's big auto manufacturer accounts, the company folds. If the company folds & the military can no longer get these highly precision ball bearings for their hardware, (and getting them from overseas is not an option, things like the vibration resistant parts that go into sub props are still top secret) then you have a national security issue.

Given this example, what would you have done in the USA's shoes? Now remember this isn't the only manufacturer in the USA that is in this position, you potentially have dozens if not hundreds of companies in similarly chaotic situations.

Also, keep in mind that the US Government are still the ones buying these parts in the end, so just raising the hardware prices across the board is probably not a viable long-term solution in keeping cost down.

There were not and are not millions and millions of employees in those companies, whose unions are just as guilty for this mess as anyone. And whichever company picked up the pieces would have also picked up many of the employees that worked for them.

Your example of ball bearings is company and item specific. That you think this would be the only company that could manufacture these items is to use tunnel vision. GM and Chrysler ae not comapnies vital to the national defense. They are vital to the Dems for all the money and votes the unions bring.