How to Bail Out General Motors

The solution is simple. Exxon exists and makes obscene profits as a direct result of the gas guzzling dinosaurs that are made by the big 3 auto Companies, Exxon made a $40 billion dollar annual profit over their last fiscal year. Since, in reality, the big 3 are de facto subsidiaries of Exxon, it seems only logical that the pot should be shared - move $25 billion of the $40 billion over to the big three and Exxon still has an obscene profit of $15 billion. Voila, The heats off Exxon, the big 3 continue produces their gas guzzling junk , the unions keep their emplyees wages almost as high as govenment workers, and congress can go back to pointing fingers elsewhere!

Pres elect Obama campaign promised" he would not give any tax breaks to companies shipping jobs overseas." Well, Mercury Milan has a transmission made in Japan and 40% parts made in Mexico and 40/50% in Canada/US; AND cars are assembled in: MEXICO !!! So, he must rescind all tax breaks to the Big 3 before they get any bailout loan!! And Chevy is made in CANADA. DUH!!! Lier liar pants on fire!

Is this supposed to save jobs? Is this supposed to save small businesses?

We have been doing trickle down economics so long (how long..); So long that we don't even know how to do different. This is a trickle down bailout. ...

To help employees, and small businesses... The money must go directly to them somehow.

There is no guarantee that GM won't still file for bankrupcy, or lay off thousands. And frankly, any conditional bailout to GM won't hold water: Because GM can just later claim that the conditions will ruin them. So conditions may not be legally enforcible.

Why don't we.. Make a law that suspend morgage payments for 6 months, the interest will continue to accumulate but
..people will not be on foreclosed; they save money and will survive unemployment longer; they will also have their severence and unemployment insurance moneys so they may survive unemployment comfortably for a year (hopefully they will find jobs sooner). For those who rent, something else can be done.. maybe pay it off for a few months.

Tempararily suspending mortgage payments to banks (they still get interest accumulations) will cost the US Treasury nothing! And will directly help employees who are laid off!

For small businesses, the Treasury can guarantee low interest loans, if the business was in good standing before the crisis. That's direct help, and may also cost the Treasury nothing!

When will the trickle-down myth stop?

Instead of a bailout, time for hr 676 the Conyers-Kucinich bill to expand medicare , modified to cover the UAW and retirees.
This is the only sustainable solution thal lets the automakers get back to making cars. Among industrialized countries, only the USA does not have a single payer healthcare system-now the auto industry, like other industries is being killed by health care issues -we cannot continue to try to have an industrial base without single payer care!

David Thomas, I believe your idea for universal health care is dangerous, expensive and counterproductive. Government bureaucracies require 2/3 of their funding in order to pay the bureaucracy (look at HUD as a good example, though I haven't check this figure since the 1980s). People won't leave their jobs to start new businesses because they'll need steady income to afford all the taxes to pay for health care.

Your point about the rich wanting to get richer is right, except for one thing: people get rich by taking risks. They take risks based on rewards. If you eliminate 2/3 of the reward through taxes, they are not willing to take the risk. Fewer risks taken means fewer jobs created.

Furthermore, if you give everyone health care for "free" (it costs them but hidden in the taxes), then according to the laws of economics, as cost goes to zero, demand goes to infinity. We'll raise taxes to pay for ever-increasing health care costs, thus reducing the rewards of the entrepreneurs and thus reducing their willingness to take those big risks.

Finally, why do the rich always have to pay for the poor? Do you think the rich steal from the poor? What laws do they break? Why do you reward them for playing by the rules and doing well? You already have to make roughly $80K per year in order to pay "your fair share" of taxes (divide the cost of govt by number of tax payers). If you make less, then some rich guy is already carrying you. Why not have him take over your mortgage payment? Why not have him subsidize your grocery expenses? If you want to climb on the rich guy's back, why stop with health care? Food and shelter seem more important to me....

I just pulled the data from GM's website; over the previous 20 quarters the company lost $64.9 billion more than it made in profits ($71.33b in losses versus $6.47b in profits). Their best profitable quarter was $1.4b in 2Q04. They had losses in all of 2005, 2006 and 2007, when people were purchasing SUV's at record rates. If GM could not make money in 2005 thru 2007, how can they ever make money going forward? GM's claim that it needs a loan to deal with the credit crisis is a smoke screen for long-standing problems. Any bailout should come with massive restructuring; total change in BOD and management, reduction in brands and dealer base, and a reduction in wages and benefits to levels equivalent to Honda, Toyota, BWM and Merdeces plants in the US. Sure, it will hurt the employees but shareholders have already lost 98% of their investments and bond holders have lost about 70% (and still falling).

Are we going to be bailing out every business/industry that is having financial problems?
Are we going to help out the ones who lived WAY beyond their means?
When are we going to be able to say - you got your self into this mess NOW you will have to find a way out of it?
There are people who actually voted for OBAMA because they think he is going to pay their mortgage and give them more welfare money. WHEN are we going to make people responsible for their own lives and their own actions?

Obviously, Doc Howl's parents &/or grandparents aren't retirees for one of the big three who depend on their pensions and healthcare coverage to survive...otherwise he wouldn't be so 'tough' It amazes me how cavilier people who aren't directly affected by a situation such as this or the foreclosure epidemic are. If GM, Ford & Chrysler go under can you guess many more business will fail? How many more people will lose their homes, healthcare, life savings? Meaning the U.S. will have probably 2 million more people on welfare and medicare/medicaid. That's a tough condition.

Randeaux, WWII...was back then. This is now. None of the big three companies constitute our industrial base in defense weaponry. Give it a rest.

Looks like some *** deleted my comment. Maybe they need a bullet in the head too. F88K newsweek. usa = s**t.