I'd like to say I'm surprised, but sadly I cannot.
The first thing President-elect Barack Obama sought to accomplish, aside from picking his cabinet members, has been to try and get more money to the mentally-challenged automotive giants from Detroit. Now, I don't really have all the specifics here, other than a front-page article in the New York Times that said Obama was trying to get Bush to bailout Detroit. So I feel I must ask the question, "Why?"
I don't know. My first guess would be to help the companies from filing for Chapter 11, but how can that help out Main Street? Is it because of the number of people that are employed by the auto companies? Why is this the government's problem?
He never mentioned any of this in the election. Then again, he didn't not mention it, so I guess that's something. Maybe it's just me here, but won't giving money to a company that still makes cars that get less miles per gallon than the Model T just delay their inevitable demise? Instead of rewarding these companies for their backwards policies, how about rewarding them for coming up with a mass-produced car that meets our environmental and economic needs? Mr. Obama, I don't see how giving them tens of billions of dollars will do anything to make us independent of foreign oil in ten years, which if I remember correctly, was one of your redundancies from the campaign trail.
Without Obama's explanation as to why he wants to bail out Detroit, I am forced to come up with my own solutions - that they paid for some of Obama's record-breaking $650 million campaign, and now that he won, it's his turn to help them out. Or maybe the oil companies really do run this country. Either way, this move makes me lose even more faith in American democracy...but I'm glad I voted for Nader for the third time.
I guess we're all just supposed to be dancing in the street now that gas is a dollar cheaper than it was a month ago.
Somebody please enlighten me on this - am I completely off the mark here or is something seriously wrong?
1 comment:
You're not completely (fuck it i can't spell) off the mark. I wouldn't put the whole blame on Obama. I believe anyone who got voted in was going to do the same. Yes the oil companies run this place. Look what happens when people start investing a lot of money in alternative energy... your gas prices drop. You can blame the market for that but come on now. Hey miss ya.
Drew
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