Tue, 28 Oct 2008

GM, Chrysler request $10 billion in aid: source

Every time I hear McCain grouse about Obama's "socialism", I wonder what the good Senator from Arizona thinks about deals like this. I'd lay even odds that he'd mutter something about "saving jobs" and vote yes, like most pols these days, and "socialism" be damned - that's something only your opponent believes in.

But step back with me for a minute, and take a deeper look. Is this the only help the government is providing the auto industry? Not by a long shot. When Honda, Suburu or other foreign companies want to set up shop here, the first place they go is local governments, and they only build when promised tax abatements sometimes totaling hundreds of millions of dollars.

Imagine for a moment that you're General Motors - you see your competitors essentially getting paid to build factories in your backyard, funded in part by the taxes you pay on real estate and capital equipment. Wouldn't you ask for your share, too? Even though your factories were built long ago, and are fully staffed? You bet you would. And that's what we're seeing today.

If we want to cut of corporate welfare, then let's cut off corporate welfare: all of it. Tax abatements are just another form of subsidy, and until we get rid of them we'll be faced with the call to subsidize everybody equally. And that, my friends, is socialism.

Reuters - General Motors Corp and Cerberus Capital Management have asked the U.S. government for roughly $10 billion in an unprecedented rescue package to support a merger between GM and Chrysler LLC, sources familiar with the talks said on Monday.

(link) [Yahoo! News: Top Stories]

/Politics | 1 writeback | permanent link

On 11/9/2008 11:14:18
Jer Goode wrote

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