Obama: Let’s bail out “every” industry

Obama: Let’s bail out “every” industry
By: David Harsanyi
8/9/2012 04:19 PM

Remember when President Barack Obama said: ”I don’t want to run auto companies, and I don’t want to run banks.” He changed his mind.

Today, Obama, speaking in the depressed city of Pueblo, Colorado, heaped praise upon himself for his uncanny ability to use other people’s money to nationalize unproductive companies:

“I said, I believe in American workers, I believe in this this American industry, and now the American auto industry has come roaring back. Now I want to do the same thing with manufacturing jobs, not just in the auto industry, but in every industry.”

So partial nationalization of the entire manufacturing sector. Sounds like a plan.

But “roaring back”? When Obama sold the taxpayers interest in Chrysler a little more than a year ago, we were out $1.3 billion. Taxpayers are still “invested” with 25 percent of General Motors stocks which if sold today could mean another $16-20 billion in losses. Taxpayers would only break even on GM, if the price of a share was $53.

See video here.

But, of course, that’s not the worst part of the bailout. It’s the moral hazard. The cronyism. Rather than allowing companies to shed the burden of labor contracts and their failing business models, they were busy playing politics. The Obama administered its own “bankruptcy,” punishing stakeholders and certain workers and rewarding unions and other cronies — and, let’s not forget, ignoring the rule of law.

Every time another unproductive sector of the manufacturing sector runs into trouble — and it often does for good reasons — they can expect Washington to bail them out. Or maybe the president means he will preemptively save them?
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To read another article by David Harsanyi, click here.
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To read more about how the auto bailout has affected GM, click here.