Well, the Dems have finally agreed to a partial bailout of the auto industry -- but only by accepting the Bush Administration's demand that this money comes out of the fund intended to encourage investment in alternative energy cars. No surprise -- Bush throws one final piece of meat to his masters in the energy industry.
Still...this unseemly exercise has raised a far more important question in my mind: Why were the automakers -- and by extension, the autoworkers, less important than the pork?
A few important items that everyone seems to have forgotten: Our earlier, $700 billion Wall Street Bailout legislation was NOT a $700 billion bailout.
It was AN $812 BILLION BAILOUT AND PORK PACKAGE! That's right...think back. There were $112 billion in subsidies and tax breaks included in this law, including subsidies for such matters of national significance as motocross speedways and movie producers and a visitor's center.
$112 billion of junk! $112 billion of stuff that matters to NO ONE other than politicians trying to get elected. The same people who for weeks whined and moaned about protecting the taxpayers from a $25 (then $36) billion bailout now feel compelled to drain money from the fund for energy efficient cars.
But no one moaned about the pork. No one said "We have to protect the taxpayers from us.'' No one said "This will protect no jobs, and have no benefit to our economy.''
Yet these guys were willing to risk the automakers -- and have now agreed to throw away some of the best incentives we have for alternative energy cars -- because they want to protect us.
Want to protect us? Here's the idea: Don't drain the money from the efficient energy fund. Go back and take out the $112 billion of garbage. Set it up as a bailout fund. Use 36 billion for the auto industry. Sit on the rest. If nothing else is needed, put the money back in the Treasury.
Until the politicians do that, they should stop whining about the taxpayers. They should stop pretending they care. Cause they don't.