Republicans and Auto Bailouts
Sara Binder looks at patterns in House GOP support for the auto bailout package:
And which Republicans were most likely to support pumping emergency loans into the Big Three? Location, location, location. All of the eight Michigan Republicans who participated in the vote supported the bailout. Indeed, Republicans from Rustbelt states were disproportionately (though not surprisingly) more likely to vote with the auto manufacturers, even controlling for ideological predispositions. Republican moderates were also more likely to cross the double yellow line to vote with the Democrats, just as they were for the Wall Street bailout package in October. Granted, Republicans from Rustbelt states tend to be more moderate than their Republican colleagues. But both ideology and geography tend to matter in driving GOP support. Finally, even after controlling for policy views and constituency forces, retiring Republicans were more likely to vote with Motown. Single-minded seekers of re-election can quickly become single-minded seekers of saving their 401K’s.
What lesson should the Big Three draw from the House vote as they seek roughly a dozen GOP votes to break Senator Richard Shelby’s promised Senate filibuster? Fill your tanks and buckle up for a bumpy ride. The geographic concentration of the domestic auto industry in the Rustbelt radically limits the industry’s voting power in the Senate. Nor has the spread of foreign automakers in search of lower labor costs into the South helped the Big Three’s cause, as southern senators—already ideologically predisposed to shun direct government support for the auto industry—seem unswayed by the potential for a heavily-unionized domestic industry in the Midwest to go bankrupt. And unfortunate for the Big Three, few of the remaining Senate GOP moderates yet appear to be on board for the bailout package.
Not earth-shattering revelations — this is about what you’d expect. But it’s good to know for sure and not just be guessing.
63 Responses to “Republicans and Auto Bailouts”
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December 12th, 2008 at 12:55 am
Couldn’t have happened to a shittier run company
burn, baby burn
December 12th, 2008 at 1:11 am
How quaint. Dispassion from yglesias and a courtesy burn, baby burn.
The losses from this may not touch those employed at “CAP” (the irony), but many people will lose their homes, livelihoods and health insurance – and with that, maybe their lives.
Their communities will crumble and the blowback from the destruction will create greater despair, more prisons, and starved revenue streams.
But nevermind. At least some people can enjoy the fall of America from their vantage point.
December 12th, 2008 at 1:20 am
Did you look at the cloture vote yet?
December 12th, 2008 at 2:04 am
I’m confused. Did the Republicans actually filibuster or did Reid let them get away with an implied filibuster again?
December 12th, 2008 at 2:22 am
Did the Republicans actually filibuster or did Reid let them get away with an implied filibuster again?
What do you think? God forbid the Republicans be forced to take credit for starting the Second Great Depression.
December 12th, 2008 at 3:15 am
What’s a million jobs or two among friends? Burn, baby, burn! Real Americans work in the financial sector!
December 12th, 2008 at 4:15 am
While none of us wants to see major job losses, it’s not very productive for the government to be dishing out corporate welfare right and left to save them. The collective wisdom of America’s consumers should be honored. Spending their hard earned money on companies that they didn’t see fit to spend money on of their own free will is not the action of a free country.
December 12th, 2008 at 5:03 am
All the UAW has to do is accept Toyota-level wages beginning on any date in 2009. The bondholders are already willing to accept 33c on the dollar, and the shareholders got wiped out. And this is the Republicans’ fault?
December 12th, 2008 at 6:21 am
Re: What’s a million jobs or two among friends? Burn, baby, burn!
There’s going to be a lot of jobs lost in the auto industry no matter what.
And I predict that if this fails now, it will be tried again, with better results, when the new Congress is seated in a couple weeks.
December 12th, 2008 at 7:07 am
let the rust belt freeze in the dark?
December 12th, 2008 at 7:28 am
Let’s see how the market reacts. I smell bloodbath and that will probably focus some GOP concentration.
December 12th, 2008 at 8:35 am
#6: What financial sector?
Burn Baby Burn!
Buy foreign if it means boycotting the old confederacy!
December 12th, 2008 at 8:52 am
There is one thing missing- the massive state supported subsidies on Japanese and German auto makers.
December 12th, 2008 at 9:04 am
Ten Republican Senators voted for the bailout. There were only 35 votes against cutting off debate. Harry Reid let the Republicans filibuster with 35 votes (52-35).
What the hell?
December 12th, 2008 at 9:11 am
1) This is what Cowardly Democratic ass-kissing gets them. IF Obama had focused more on helping Democratic candidates win a 60 vote majority, he wouldn’t be facing Mitch McConnell fucking him for the next 4 years. But NOOOOoo, we had to hear all that kumbaya bullshit.
2) The Democrats need to spend some of that fucking money they have to knock the living shit out of the Republicans. IMMEDIATELY Run TV ads in Pennsylvania and other states with Republican Senators coming up for reelection.
Show that Mitch McConnell ran up $5 TRILLION in debt when he was in charge –but is now driving the AMERICAN car industry into bankruptcy for the sake of the JAP auto makers in his state. SHow the Mitch has never had a problem with whoring for RICH Americans — but that he tosses blue collar AMERICAN workers away like a piece of toilet paper.
Make Ole MITCH the face of the Republican Party. ANd then hang that around the neck of every godddam Republican out there.
Our problem is not the Republicans — those whores could have been destroyed long ago. our problem is a cowardly fifth-column within the Democratic Party itself which always puts its interests above those of Democratic constituents.
December 12th, 2008 at 9:17 am
Note: My understanding from news reports is that Mitch is deliberately lying to AMerica in order to benefit his Jap patrons. The GM worker makes about the same as the Toyota worker — the problem is that GM has the cost of providing pensions and health care for a mass of retired auto workers that Toyota doesn’t have because Toyota on came here relatively recently.
Plus Southern politicians are deceitful whores who let foreigners fuck American workers on benefits — for a price of course. Part of which goes to buying an American flag to wave.
December 12th, 2008 at 9:17 am
Our problem is not the Republicans — those whores could have been destroyed long ago. our problem is a cowardly fifth-column within the Democratic Party itself which always puts its interests above those of Democratic constituents.<stron
December 12th, 2008 at 9:17 am
Yes, it is.
If it were 1998, we should let them die. Even if this were happening in the recession of 2001, we should let them go under. Today, though, the federal government is looking to spend money to stimulate the economy. For every dollar it puts into the American automakers, it puts many dollars into circulation by forestalling the elimination of a large part of our economy. Even if all of the big three fail ten years from now, it will still have been the best use of stimulous spending.
December 12th, 2008 at 9:34 am
1) I am –and have been –critical of auto company management.
But this crisis was not caused just by them — it was largely caused by a financial collapse bought on by the corrupt government of Mitch McConnell, the Republican Congresses, and the Republican President of 2001-2006.
Companies are going under because they can’t borrow.
2) But has the fucking Democratic leadership done ANYTHING to hang this oncoming Depression around the necks of the Republican Party? NOOOOOOO
3) PS And let’s make it a mission to fuck Kentucky. By 2010, I want the citizens of that great state consumed with envy over the lavish lifestyles enjoyed by the residents of Beirut and Kabul. Start with a 100 percent tariff on imports of auto parts.
December 12th, 2008 at 9:37 am
Any guess regarding how hard it will be to get 10 Rust Belt Republican Senators to join with Democrats voting in favor of fucking Mitch McConnell and Toyota??
December 12th, 2008 at 9:43 am
Why it is so easy for Republicans to toss away $1.5 Trillion –no, make that $7 Trillion — onto low value paper shufflers in the financial services industry while they balk at a mere $14 billion for the people who build REAL products — the cars and trucks we drive??
December 12th, 2008 at 9:45 am
“all that kumbaya” was the most effective tactic for winning senate seats in Republican states. Senate seat #60 had to come from Georgia or Kentucky.
December 12th, 2008 at 9:50 am
They already did. Exactly 10 Republicans voted to cut off debate and send the bill to the floor for a vote. The cloture vote was 52-35.
I’ve argued before that Harry Reid had a very tough job getting contolling such a narrow majority. He even had a minority on ssues concerning the war. But on this issue, he had the votes. He had 10 Republicans and both independents. He should have had 61 votes. He failed. This is Reid’s fault. This bill passes with a competent majority leader.
December 12th, 2008 at 10:04 am
I think Reid should be forcing an actual filibuster on these things, but let’s be accurate about the votes he has. He needs more than 10 Republicans to get to 60, he actually has to have 12. That’s because with Obama resigned, Biden effectively recusing himself and Kennedy ill, there are only 46 Dems available even if you get all of them. Add the 2 independents, you still need 12 Republicans.
Put another way, there were actual 53 votes for cloture (Reid voted no as a procedural matter but would have voted yes if he had 60). If you add in Kerry and Wyden who didn’t vote, (Kerry’s out at the global warming conference, I don’t know about Wyden); and if Reid had been able to twist the arms of the 3 Dems who voted no (Baucus, Lincoln, Tester) to come on board, that’s still only 58.
December 12th, 2008 at 10:05 am
Here’s the cloture vote, 52-35. By my count there were 8 democrats that voted nay or did not vote. And without Obama’s vacancy, there would be an additional vote. (One of the nay votes is Reid voting Nay likely for procedural purposes).
December 12th, 2008 at 10:08 am
Biden effectively recusing himself
Why would he do this?
(And I thought Kennedy had returned to the Senate:
http://www.boston.com/news/nation/articles/2008/11/18/kennedy_returns_to_senate/)
December 12th, 2008 at 10:12 am
Biden and Obama had, IIRC, decided that it would not be appropriate for them to take part in legislative activities now that they are transitioning to the executive branch. Separation-of-powers issues.
As for Kennedy, the fact remains he didn’t vote. While he has been back for some work, I think his health issues mean that effectively he cannot be counted on to return to Washington for votes.
December 12th, 2008 at 10:12 am
I was thinking more along the lines that he only needed one more “yea” vote (53-35 is 60.2%) and there were only 87 votes cast. He shouldn’t call for the vote unless he is sure he has it, or is sure he doesn’t. He should have been rustling up another vote, forcing McConnell to do the same, until one of them couldn’t get anymore. If the vote were 57-39, or even 56-38, that would be different.
My guess is he called for the vote because he believed he’d win.
December 12th, 2008 at 10:13 am
Njorl, the required vote to invoke cloture is 3/5 of the Senators serving, not merely of those voting. Right now there are still 99 Senators (with Obama’s vacancy), and that means you still need 60 votes.
December 12th, 2008 at 10:14 am
Do you need 60 votes for cloture? I thought you only needed 3/5 of votes cast. If so, I’m being too hard on Reid.
December 12th, 2008 at 10:14 am
Maybe Reid should start referring to Shelby and McConnell as the Senators from the states of Toyota and Honda.
December 12th, 2008 at 10:22 am
Re “Biden and Obama had, IIRC, decided that it would not be appropriate for them to take part in legislative activities now that they are transitioning to the executive branch. Separation-of-powers issues.”
————
So we only have one President at a time but the people of Illnois and Delaware only have their Senators part of the time?
December 12th, 2008 at 10:24 am
Hey, I know. GM could pay ..er, ask.. Blagojevich to appoint someone in Obama’s place.
December 12th, 2008 at 10:29 am
So we only have one President at a time but the people of Illnois and Delaware only have their Senators part of the time?
Well, of course Obama has actually resigned now so the lack of a Senate vote is (famously now) in the hands of Illinois.
But it does point out that Biden should really do the same thing if he’s not going to vote. That would do 2 things: One is, while the seat is vacant, that would drop the cloture requirement to 59 (3/5 of 98). And of course once his seat was filled you’d get the Dem vote back. But having the Dem vote missing while still keeping the cloture requirement at 60 is the worst of both worlds.
December 12th, 2008 at 10:36 am
“Do you need 60 votes for cloture? I thought you only needed 3/5 of votes cast. If so, I’m being too hard on Reid.”
Fuck that. The Republicans psuhed through all kinds of legislation witha smaller majority.
Reid plays for the other side. He needs to be taken out as soon as possible. Maybe he should wake up to find the severed head of an auto executive in his bed.
December 12th, 2008 at 10:41 am
The current rule is:
So, with 99 Senators currently sworn (Biden and Clinton still seem to be in the Senate, but not Obama) he would still need 60 votes. If anything, it has become harder for Reid to get Cloture.
December 12th, 2008 at 11:00 am
Re Njorl
That rule is a little vague. It says 3/5 of the Senators duly chosen and sworn. However, since President Elect Osama has resigned, there are only 99 Senators duly chosen and sworn so my interpretation of the rule is that 3/5 of the 99 is required. Should Senator Biden resign, my interpretation would be that 3/5 of 98 is required.
December 12th, 2008 at 11:15 am
This is the perfect opportunity to propose a MUCH LESS radical version equalizing of pay and benefits between America’s unionized and ununionized auto workers than proposed by the labor crunching Republicans — the kind of pay equalizing that is already in legal force in most modern OECD economies, not to mention in many second-world economies (e.g., Argentina) and even in some third-world economies (e.g., Indonesia): SECTOR-WIDE labor agreements.
A “lite” version of sector wide is in force just north of our border in French-Canada where, by law, non-union firms must operate under contract terms negotiated with union firms. Under the “heavy” German version, Wal-Mart recently yanked 88 big boxes out of Germany — unskilled in giving the German customer what it wanted; unable to compete by squishing labor costs below its competitors.
If Japanese and German firms really build better machines than Detroit they can surely make a good living paying the same labor costs. The labor hating Republicans have given our progressives the perfect opening to propose sector-wide labor agreements for at least one industry (airline and supermarket workers would kill for sector-wide): they want to equalize down (finishing the race to the bottom); we want to equalize up, that’s all.
December 12th, 2008 at 11:44 am
The Republicans psuhed through all kinds of legislation witha smaller majority.
A smaller majority than 48/50 of 99?
Which is not to say that Reid should not go.
December 12th, 2008 at 12:44 pm
General Motors had offered buyouts to all of its 74,000 U.S. hourly employees. [5] Those workers could have elected to take a lump-sum payment of $45,000 or $62,500, depending on their job description, and retire with full benefits. [6]
Republican Sen. George V. Voinovich of Ohio, a strong bailout supporter, said the UAW was willing to make the cuts – but not until 2011.
http://nomedals.blogspot.com
is were citations are posted
December 13th, 2008 at 11:15 am
The problem with wage parity is wrong in many ways,in some instances the foriegn auto worker is making more than a UAW worker when you add in his or her bonuses that acually put them at $30 an hour, this is an agregious precondition to set for the UAW which in effect brought us the middle class.UAW wages only account for 10 percent of the average auto.We are the only industrialized nation that has no national health care program.Those hillbilly southern anti american anti union re-pukes would love to have all 50 states right to work states and to crush organized labor like Reagan crushed PATCO in the 80`s.
December 14th, 2008 at 10:30 am
Obama’s Blagojevich story is crumbling.
Obama insisted that none of his staff had a part in the attempted selling of his Senate seat by Gov. Blagojevich. “I have never spoken with the governor on this subject. I am confident that no representative of mine would have any part in any deals related to this seat,” Obama said. It appears that Obama’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, has been talking to Blagojevich. The details of those discussions are not yet known.
The Intellectual Redneck
December 14th, 2008 at 11:33 am
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If you have to do it, you might as well do it right
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April 1st, 2009 at 1:49 am
What can be made of this debacle called General Motors? Will they survive or wont they? Will saving GM save Jobs?
April 1st, 2009 at 1:57 am
General Motors is getting close to going bankrupt and to being liquidated. Ineptitude and greed of its management, its board, and its union are finally catching up with the former king of the automotive industry.
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