Rescuing Bob Corker
by Flyer StaffArticle Tools
- Senator Bob Corker
Late last week Tennessee senator Bob Corker made a much-ballyhooed and well-noticed speech on the floor of the Senate proposing what purported to be a compromise resolution to the congressional debate over extending a federal bailout to the automobile industry. The reality was what had been close to a done deal, a $14 billion package agreed upon by the White House and congressional Democrats, was all but undone by the “compromise.”
The ailing Big Three automakers – General Motors, Chrysler, and Ford – could have their $14 billion, Corker said on Friday, so long as they agreed to lower the wages and to discontinue various other obligations to their workers, including various contractually arranged unemployment benefits. All these reductions by March 31 and to a benefits level equivalent to what employees of foreign-owned automakers were entitled. Otherwise, the Big Three would be forced to take bankruptcy, meaning that restructuring wold render their pre-existing labor-management agreements null and void, in any case.
In other words, take the deal and bust your own unions. Or leave the deal, and we’ll bust them for you.
The provisional rescue package was suddenly ancient history as negotiations on the floor broke down.
There matters stood, and part of the fallout was that Bob Corker, who had acquired a reputation as a reasonable centrist, was suddenly recast as an arch-foe of labor and a hardline obstructionist. An ominous coincidence was that Volkswagen, one of the foreign automakers that presumably would profit from a weakening (or worse) of the Big Three is about to build a new plan in Corker’s own back yard of Chattanooga and that two other foreign manufacturers already had plants in the state.
Never mind that, as 9th District congressman pointed out in a speech to the Memphis Rotary Club on Monday, a shutdown in the state’s one General Motors plant, at Spring Hill, would be a serious blow to Tennessee’s revenue base. Never mind, too, that a shutdown to the Big Three nationally would create such economic havoc in the world of automotive suppliers –not to mention in the economy at large – as to penalize the interests of VW, Nissan, Honda, and whomever else.
In a curious way, then we are grateful for a constituent service performed for us here in Tennessee by a senator from another state. That would be Carl Levin, the veteran Democrat from Michigan, home state of the Big Three automakers, who, on a Sunday talk show, did what he could to absolve Corker of excessive partisanship and, worse, of a contemptuous attitude toward a vital sector of the American workforce.
Appearing on the program along with Corker, who contended that the recommendations he’d started with were hardened by other members of the Republican caucus, Levin agreed that, as originally formulated, Corker’s plan had been “helpful” and lacked the hard and fast demands and timetables it ended up with.
Fine and dandy, and even finer and dandier that President Bush will evidently complete the automakers’ bailout from funds already set aside for the larger financial bailout.
Bob Corker should breathe a sigh of relief like the rest of us. But henceforth he should be more careful about the company he keeps. And about sticking to both his blueprints and his principles.
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Corker = Hilter , must I say more.
Oh I can and do have more, thankyou republicons who voted for Mega-Corker (picture Megatron with Corker's face) for this grand piece of work you have created. May you all loose your jobs becuase of him. Thankfully I work for a great non-profit that will never die and they love my work so I get to watch you go from pimp to the Ho on the corner with the "With conserv for food" signs lol.
Damn, Unicorn! You Godwinned the thread with two words and a symbol!
I look forward to voting for Corker again in four years.
With regard to Unicorn's statement....I got a few relatives that lost their entire families to the Holocaust...I'd like to see you try to equate Bob Corker to Hitler in their presence!!
One of the things that makes the BIG 3 much less competitive is the contractual arrangements arranged by the UAW. This allows UAW workers to earn twice what their counterparts at BMW,Mercedes Benz, Nissan, Toyota, & Honda make (not including benefits). When benefits for current & retired workers are factored in, it places the BIG 3 at a disadvantage when compared to the aforementioned foreign car companies that manufacture cars in this country. now if u think that a 14 billion dollar bailout is going to correct this ongoing competitive disadvantage, then by all means support it. if however you have a working knowledge of basic macroeconomics then you understand that the business model forced upon the BIG 3 by the UAW is a model doomed for failure. Even if the CEOs forfeited their large salaries(which i wish they would on principle alone), the downward spiral of the BIG 3 would continue. corker, et. al, were attempting to address the flawed business model employed by the BIG3 in requesting these concessions, without causing bankruptcy(which will ultimately cause the BIG 3 AND the UAW to address the flawed business model currently in place). i think corker is doing the fiscally responsible thing in this age of RECORD-SETTING spending deficits by the federal government. give him some credit for his resolve and priciples.
Ah, so Ken and Bruce are receiving their economic dharma from that brilliant economist Steve Cohen.
This is how bad it would be for Tennessee if the U.S. auto industry fails (hint: it would lose 4% of its workforce) http://www.bizjournals.com/memphis/stories/2008/12/15/daily24.html?ana=from_rss As usual, Republicans shoot first, and ask questions later (and sometimes not even then). Gee thanks, Bob. You're a real corker.
Corker does what is best for Corker...ask Harold Ford Jr. or the city of Chattanooga about that
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