GOP Priorities

There are a number of things wrong with the Republican response to the automaker bailout, not the least of which is how some of the GOP lawmakers who voted for the $700 billion Wall Street financial package turned around and voted against the $15 billion auto deal.

Republicans are really down in the weeds on the auto deal, demanding very granular rules and attaching a large number of strings to any of the Big 3 who might take funds, while we sit here watching the administration's absolute refusal to provide any transparency on how the $700 billion has been divided and spent. Bloomberg TV formally requested details of how the financial bailout funds were being used, and Bloomberg was summarily told to pound sand.

So why does the GOP, particularly southern lawmakers, have so much disdain for the rank & file auto workers, pressing for immediate reduction in salary and benefits to the same levels as those enjoyed by non-union workers involved in the same car building work for Toyota, BMW, Nissan, and other plants located below the Mason-Dixon line?

MSNBC's Countdown program obtained an internal GOP talking points memo that cut to the heart of the matter. "This is the Democrats' first opportunity to pay off organized labor after the election," read the e-mail circulated earlier this week among Senate Republicans. "This is a precursor to card check and other items. Republicans should stand firm and take their first shot against organized labor, instead of taking their first blow from it."

This isn't about saving American auto manufacturing at all. This is the GOP digging in their heels around one of their core principals, an approach that has been disproved in the 2006 and 2008 election cycles. Republicans might have short memories, but the rest of us don't.

The average line worker for GM, Chrysler, or Ford makes $45,000 a year, which seems like a pretty middle-class income. Senate Republicans want to keep their thumb on how much these workers can earn in return for a government bailout, so why hasn't the same logic been applied to companies that accepted a chunk of the $700 billion? Shouldn't a Wall Street broker or trader be shackled in the same manner, unable to share in any of the success their company achieves until such point as their firm pays the government back? Not surprisingly, no one wants to go on record with the GOP's response to that question.

This is more about the GOP making a last-ditch attempt to destroy labor unions and employee protections in the US. The "first shot" memo makes this clear. With healthcare reform a priority for the incoming Obama administration, one of the largest pieces of the $70 per hour figure often quoted by opponents when they mislead people on what auto workers are compensated will suddenly become a non-issue. Health care retirement benefits and medical coverage for existing workers should become more affordable, which will lower that per hour rate, whatever it happens to be.

The Republicans are on the wrong side of this issue. They have repeatedly fought against some of the key foundational items that could have averted this crisis in the first place - healthcare reform, mandating increased mileage standards to force the Big 3 to make more fuel efficient offerings, tax incentives and rewards for alternative fuel vehicles, holding CEOs accountable for more than quarterly stock performance, curbing executive compensation compared to worker compensation - the list goes on and on. Having failed to provide leadership for decades, Senators now want to punish the workers for the mistakes committed by those on the opposite end of the foodchain. It's wrong, and it's been called out as such.

Morgan Johnson, United Auto Workers union president in Shreveport, Louisiana, summed up the problem quite well when speaking about his junior Senator, David Vitter (R-LA), who has been leading the GOP charge to kill the auto maker bailout while having an embarrassing history of being involved with escort services.

"I don't know what Sen. Vitter has against GM or the United Auto Workers or the entire domestic auto industry; whatever it is, whatever he thinks we've done, it's time for him to forgive us, just like Sen. Vitter has asked the citizens of Louisiana to forgive him, " said Johnson, president of Local 2166. Otherwise, Johnson said of Vitter, it would appear, "He'd rather pay a prostitute than pay auto workers."