By John Ransom
5/4/2012
The Wall Street Journal has an excellent expose by Sharon Terlep about how Obama’s economic policies end up as bad investments- for the rest of us.
You know? The 99 percent non-bailout people.
OK, it’s really not about that.
It’s about how even the worst union workers and plants under the UAW bailout got bailed out, while great workers at productive plants got the shaft- because they weren’t UAW shops.
Reports Terlep:
In the end, "we had to take care of our own members," says Cal Rapson, the former UAW vice president leading negotiations with GM. "It was unfortunate what happened to the others. But there wasn't enough to go around."
There never is enough when you’re a union boss and you are getting an $80 billion bailout.
That’s supposedly why we elect a president of the United States.
The president is supposed to be the president of ALL of us. But as Obama has made increasingly clear, he’s only the president of Trayvon Martin and Sandra Fluke and Eric Holder, and the half the Keystone pipeline that he himself squashed as well as Bob King, titular president of the UAW.
Because the truth is, as president of the United States, Obama has made a real fine UAW president.
I don’t think there is a special interest, a lobby or a donor who Obama wouldn’t screw over in order to take care of the 1 percent of workers who represent the UAW:
Despite being one of GM's most productive and cooperative factories, Moraine was closed following the company's 2007 labor pact with the United Auto Workers union. Under a deal struck by the UAW during GM's bankruptcy two years later, Moraine's 2,500 laid-off workers were barred from transferring to other plants, locking them out of the industry's rebound.
Oh, yes. The Moraine plant was a union shop, just not UAW. Instead the folks at the Moraine were represented by the International Union of Electronic, Electrical, Salaried, Machine and Furniture Workers.
Right: Who?
That’s what Obama thought too.
Since 1990, the UAW has given $27,371,075 to Democrat candidates and $184,500 to Republicans according to the database Opensecrets.org.
In other words, while GM and Chrysler shareholders and bondholders got the shaft, the UAW realized a 292,200 percent return on their investment from the money that they have invested in Democrat politicians.
The International Union of Electronic, Electrical, Salaried, Machine and Furniture Workers? They got no return at all. Perhaps because they aren’t listed as a donor for any candidates.
But that’s far better than the negative return that taxpayers are seeing from the bailout;
bailouts that tended to favor Obama’s biggest donors in 2008- financial services and unions.
The latest inspector general report says total bailout losses so far equal about $133 billion, with about 19 percent of that loss coming from the automotive industry.
Over time, some of that money may be recouped, but total losses are expected to be from $50 billion to $75 billion, and they could be higher.
The total bailout cost for automakers to taxpayers is expected to be about $25 billion.
Thanks Obama.
That plan is really working out for some of you.
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To read another article by John Ransom, click here.
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