The Big Three ask for taxpayer money while suing the government
By Susan Wilson
Well, well, well. Isn’t that just like an American car manufacturer. First they claim that they will meet more stringent fuel efficiency standards to get bail out money. Then they sue to get those same standards lowered. Stupid people, smart Congress, stupid President Bush.
During their December plea for funds from Congress both Ford and GM provided business strategies to Congress that would easily meet the proposed California fuel efficiency standards that the Obama administration is considering. Ford, GM and Chrysler had to present business strategies that would convince Congress that they were worth possible loan money. Congress chose not to provide any loan money but President Bush offered $17.4 billion from the Wall Street Bailout.
GM and Chrysler have accepted some of those funds and according to The Washington Independent, Ford claims that it will probably need a hand out in 2010.
Meanwhile The New Yorker reports that the Alliance of Automobile Manufacturers, of which all three are members, is continuing to sue in Federal Court for fuel efficiency standards to be lowered.
Confused yet?
Two of the three have accepted money from American taxpayers, but they are not willing to abide by the standards set at the will of those same taxpayers. Not a very grateful bunch.
The California standard, which several other states want to implement, is for the fleets of car manufacturers to reach 35 miles per gallon by 2020. The analysis by the National Resources Defense Group turned up the following:
Ford, for example, boasted that it would raise its fuel-economy standards 26 percent above 2005 levels by 2012, and 36 percent above the same baseline by 2015. General Motors, for its part, vowed fleet-wide fuel-efficiencies of 37.3 miles a gallon for cars, and 27.5 mpg for trucks, by 2012. (Chrysler, which did not include fuel-efficiency estimates in its report, was not a subject of the NRDC analysis.)
If Ford and GM were telling the truth about their future plans, they would easily meet the California standards. Why are they continuing to waste millions of dollars on lawsuits fighting what the public wants, when they supposedly are on track to deliver car fleets that will meet the goal?
If the Congress wasn’t skeptical before, it should be now. If the American taxpayer isn’t disgusted she should be and if President Obama follows Bush’s example, the American public hasn’t gained much.
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January 30th, 2009
You’ve really got to wonder about the big end of town. I just heard that Wall Street bankers are still giving themselves massive bonuses – and that’s while they’re begging for money from the government.