But Wagoner is guilty of an even bigger crime than that.
He allowed the United States government to take control of America’s largest privately-owned auto manufacturer. He allowed Barack Obama to kick in the door, and in one fell swoop, nationalize one of America’s oldest and greatest companies.
Why did this happen? It happened because he decided to accept a bailout from the federal government. Pure and simple. Rick Wagoner could have done what any normal, responsible, capitalist CEO would have done. Make the tough call, and file for bankruptcy. That would have purged all of the company’s debt, including the cancerous contract with the UAW. He could have gone through a bankruptcy reorganization like nearly every airline in America has done, and come out the other side in the black, hired new designers and engineers, and tried to make a profitable product to compete in the global automobile market.
But because he (and Chrysler) took the bailout, the American taxpayers went on the hook for $25 billion. This money was obviously not used to make cars people actually want to buy, so it did not increase demand, which is the only thing that matters in the corporate world. It was used to pay off the unions and creditors in advance of a bankruptcy that the new CEO of GM says the company will probably have to file . That is $25 billion flushed down the toilet.
So Wagoner’s spineless decision to take the bailout not only resulted in a pile of wasted taxpayer dollars, Wagoner also lost his job, the company will file for bankruptcy anyway, and worst of all, Barack Obama is now the CEO of the company. All because Wagoner didn’t have the guts to say, “Thanks, but no thanks.”
This has now led to the Liberals in Congress to meddle in the affairs of any large business that took any bailout money. So the same band of fools who passed the CRA, and let Fannie and Freddie guarantee mortgages for people who could not pay them, and forced banks to make the loans that led to the current crisis, are now deciding who gets bonuses and who doesn’t.
In the case of AIG, the Liberals specifically authorized the millions in bonuses , and then when the company paid them, they pretended that they didn’t know about them and tried to get them back by taxing them at 90%. If a CEO tried that trick, he would have been fired from the company. But Congress is in charge now, and because of Rick Wagoner, the only way to stop that kind of nonsense is by the American people voting out the new congressional GM leadership at the ballot box .
This has also led to people like Barney Frank ramming legislation through the House that would allow the Treasury Secretary to set the salaries of all employees, from the CEO down to the mail room delivery boy, for any company that takes bailout money. That is not nationalization? That is not a centrally planned economy like that of the Soviet Union? Are they going to decide on the types of products and the best way to market them too? This is anti-capitalism in its purest form.
So how do we stop this takeover of corporate America by anti-American, anti-capitalist, authoritarian politicians in Washington?
The CEO’s of America need to stick out their chests, lead with their chins, and tell the government NO, HELL NO, WE DON’T WANT ANY BAILOUT MONEY. They need to fight the oppression, fight this scourge that will bring about a loss of productivity, jobs, and yes, profits. Scott’s piece this morning indicates some acknowledgment from the Obama Administration that government control of executive pay and other corporate decisions is hindering the bailout attempts, and CEO’s need to drive that message home. If America’s CEO’s can’t stand up to a bunch of know-nothing lightweights in Washington, who have never run anything in their lives, then they should do the right thing and step down and let somebody with a spine step in and do their patriotic duty and preserve the engine of America’s prosperity and freedom.
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Posted by Bill Dupray
on Apr 4 2009 Filed under Politics.
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Thanks for the information article.