$25B for automakers too

[Fleshdancer]

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/83bfe68c-8a8f-11dd-a76a-0000779fd18c.html

The House of Representatives on Wednesday approved a $25bn package of low-cost loans to help hard-pressed carmakers and their suppliers finance plant modernisation at a time of restricted access to public capital ­markets.

The automotive loans are separate from the proposed $700bn bail-out for the banking sector, which is still being debated in Congress. The House approved the measure 370-58, setting the stage for Senate approval within days.

Executives of General Motors, Ford Motor and Chrysler and their suppliers have lobbied heavily for the loans. Both presidential ­candidates, John McCain and Barack Obama, have expressed support.

Shelly Lombard, analyst at Gimme Credit, a corporate bond research company, told clients this week that “blue collar workers are more sympathetic victims than ‘rich’ investment bankers. So it’s easier to defend loans designed to save close to 100,000 jobs in the shrinking US manufacturing industry.”

:shrug:

I'm overwhelmed. Is this good news? Bad news? I can't tell anymore.

[rurallib]

1. Not sure - Auto management has fucked up so badly for the

past 3 decades that I am not sure I would trust them with that kind of money. Plus they wangled a deal to fuck over the unions earlier this year (last year maybe?), so I don't have much sympathy for them. But people need jobs, even when it is for half what they used to get.

[magellan]

2. It's really past time that we, the American people, hire our own lobbyists

If that's the only way we get anything from these clowns on the hill, then so be it.

Alternatively, I'll set up a business building mud huts, hire a lobbyist, and convince Washington to give me a loan because no one buys my product.

[Fleshdancer]

3. there's something very sad about needing our own lobbyists

Sad but true. I know I personally don't feel represented by my Representative. Then again, just figuring out who my representative is can be an adventure thanks to Tom Delay.