The Party of Executive Greed?

The antipathy of certain southern Republican's to any sort of aid/bailout/help to the US auto industry is a bit bizarre to me. They seem to have no grasp on reality or simple economics.

Let me lay this out. The car companies have made stupid choices over the years. GM is still too big, has too many lines, and too many dealerships. Chrysler is still struggling from numerous poor decisions made during the time they were owned by Daimler and having too many dealerships.

Yes, labor costs, and most importantly ex-employee benefits/health care cost them tons of money each year.

However, the southern Republican's appear, and I can only say appear, because I don't understand their stance, to think that all the problems with the companies are because of the unions and that they don't have enough fuel efficient vehicles in their lineup.

GM has the most cars that get 30+ mpgs of any manufacturer. Granted, it could be the same car in 2 or 3 different lines but they still have options. Chrysler is in a stickier position due mostly to questionable decisions made during the Daimler tenure, however they have a multitude of hybrid/plugin electrics coming down the line for 2010.

Two things seem to be lacking from the view of those opposing this loan. First, consumers are idiots. They whine about the gas mileage they get, but as soon as gas prices dropped the vehicles that showed the biggest gain were all medium to full size SUVs. There is also the difficulty of turning a profit on small cars compared to trucks and SUVs. Forcing companies to produce more vehicles consumers do not want yet (raise the gas tax another $1 a gallon) and that they can't turn a profit on is not a path to profitability.

Second, yes, union labor costs more. So does executive pay. For a $5 million bonus to one executive (which they seem to get no matter how the company is doing) you could pay a whole heck of a lot of workers a living wage. I'm not saying workers need to be getting $35/hour to put widget A on widget B plus benefits. But I am saying that making $15-20/hour plus benefits and the big guys up top getting bonuses of $250k to $500k sounds fair to me.

The Republicans might wonder why they are losing votes like crazy. Things like this are why. The average person is a worker, not an executive. So when all the laws you make, decisions you push, seem to benefit the top 1% the other 99% aren't going to be thrilled with you.