http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/roge...

and

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/roge...

Barney Frank wants a reduction of 25 per cent (a quarter). I suspect Frank is just arbitrary and wants to spend the money on other things (he likes buy-a-vote bailout schemes, currently).

But there is room to cut, for real, because there is room for reform, which is likely inevitable:

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/1108/15521...

http://www.iht.com/articles/2008/11/11/america/...

http://www.cfr.org/publication/17793/

[More]

http://www.defenseindustrydaily.com/IEEE-Specia...

http://www.reuters.com/article/politicsNews/idU...

Rudi, that book I told you about describes a lot of what's going on, including how this time banks are involved. (The book neglects Paulson's ties to Wall Street and any crony nature of the bailout.)

On a Detroit Three bailout or handout:

Two wrongs don't make a right, even when the second wrong is a “pittance” compared to the first.

The Detroit 3 and the UAW have formed an obsolete, failed model for thirty or more years. The CEOs and Gettelfinger should have already made changes to stop the cash hemmorhaging (NO EXCUSES) and should already have sent to Congress a plan for fundamental alteration of the companies to make them viable, if not still modern and vital like the thriving US auto industry outside of Detroit. They simply came, arrogantly, expecting a handout. In exchange for what? Now the UAW is screeching more loudly than ever that disaster is imminent. For them and the Detroit Three, yes, for now; for the rest of us, no catastrophe and even the Detroit Three may reorganize into something viable and modern — even if decades too late. It's their own fault.

As on past occasions, I've refrained from making a remark in order to let someone else present it first, but when nobody does (perhaps not feeling it's merited, perhaps not conceiving of it at all), I step back in. This time, it's the coup de grace on the already definitive annihilation I've made for any bogus case for a bailout of the Detroit Three (and payoff to the UAW for the vote this November, as well as providing life support until the modern industry can be unionized by “Card Check”). The coup de grace on the bogus bailout appeal? Everyone says, “look at Chrysler.” It was bailed out and survived. To that, I reply — look at Chrysler _now_. It's in the worst shape of the Detroit Three. It's merely kept going because Cerberus wanted eventually to sell it, piecemeal or in whole to one of the other two in Detroit (at which point it would be taken apart, anyway). Coming on private jets to DC to ask for the handout was simply adding to the idiocy.

It's pretty bad when Democrats, ready to bail out losers of all kinds to ingratiate themselves and buy votes, when _Democrats_ in large numbers are reluctant to waste money on the Detroit Three. Even Barney the Barking Dog Frank during his left-wing blathering on NPR acknowledged that $25B is not enough and won't be the end. (And Frank blathered typical left-wing say-nothing-of-value “talking points”.) Farther-left people like Robert Reich have stated that the UAW must face reality and change its ways, and even _Michael_Moore_ is less than enthusiastic about a bailout!

[Barney the Barking Dog Frank]

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?st...

Waxman replacing dinosaur Dingell and threatening environmentalist nonsense, including onerous to ridiculous demands on the auto industry (the modern companies as well as Detroit), only make Detroit's long-term prospects worse. Detroit is properly heading for bankruptcy and reorganization, anyway.

[Good reader remarks]

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/nardelli-wins-...

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/bailout-watch-...

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/bailout-watch-...

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/bailout-watch-...

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/bailout-watch-...

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/wp-content/upl...

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/wp-content/upl...

OK, back to commentary…

http://www.thetruthaboutcars.com/bailout-watch-...

Of course I am for cutting defense spending in total by a third, cutting agricultural subsidies by $100 billion and ending the war on drugs/legalizing marijuana which would save another $50 billion a year. So in total that'd be like $350-$400 billion a year that could be used for domestic infrastructure and services.

All in all I have to say that if the car companies had a real 5 year plan for how they were going to reform that it would be hard to be against the bailout…but so far it sounds more like the financial bailout which has not really helped at all due to its schizophrenic nature.

They must be from the anti-America part of the country… A bunch of ungrateful, unAmerican bastards.