Anti auto bailout GOP Senators should listen to their constituents who want to "Buy American"

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS
by Chad Rubel

You find yourself stretching the boundaries of what you can do financially. Your juggling skills are being put to the test. And money you thought was coming isn't coming through in enough time.

You could declare bankruptcy, but that would cause a lot more problems than it would solve. But you want a better answer.

If you were to watch daytime over-the-air TV, you would see a solution: payday loans. Give them a signed postdated check and you can get cash upfront to pay those bills.

We know the foolishness of payday loans, but it almost sounds like what GM and Chrysler can use right now.

If they can just wait until January 20, they would have a better chance to get the money to keep things afloat. But, a number of Southern GOP Senators, concerned with the foreign-car companies that have plants in their states, are putting up major roadblocks.

A payday loan -- at insane interest -- would keep the auto companies going for another 45 days until legislation could be passed. Of course, this is contingent on getting 60 votes to end the debate.

Well, this might be a serious problem since regardless of how many senators you have (98? 100?), you still need 60. Right this second, there are more Republican senators than Democratic ones (99 senators: 48 Democrats, 49 Republicans, and 2 Independents), so you couldn't get to 60 with 10 10-foot poles.

Yes, it would be foolish to give a company such as GM a payday loan. But it's also like negotiating with the babysitter. At some point, the parents, the more responsible people will be in charge, and you have to stall until they get home.

There are two fronts behind the Southern GOP Senators. Yes, they are trying to bust the unions. The word "union" is probably more troublesome in some circles in the South than "Yankee." And there is the large number of foreign-car plants in the South: Mitch McConnell's Kentucky features the largest Toyota plant outside Japan. Bob Corker's Tennessee has the U.S. headquarters of Nissan.

If nothing else, Sen. Jim Bunning (R-KY) should have some sympathy, since he started his baseball career in Detroit, and compiled a 118-87 record in 9 seasons with the Detroit Tigers.

But in looking for a way out, a direction where these Senators could be convinced to think in terms of the entire country -- an unspoken requirement of U.S. Senators -- the best way to turn is to the people who are likely to vote Republican.

Whatever you thought of the John McCain campaign, the GOP is dominant in the South and the West. While Barack Obama made some rather nice gains, states in these areas turned red rather easily.

I don't have the demographics to back this up, but since much of these regional areas are rural, there are likely lots of trucks and SUVs. Sometimes, it's for show, but mostly these vehicles serve a real practical purpose.

And say what you will about GM, Ford, and Chrysler, but the trucks and SUVs they sell -- and they do sell a lot of them -- go over really well in these parts of the country. And given the America-first, patriotic, love-it-or-leave-it mentality, having a GM, Ford, or Chrysler truck in the driveway is a source of pride.

Now, these people might not give a damn if the cars don't survive. If you work at the Toyota plant in Georgetown, Kentucky or the Nissan plant in Smyrna, TN, or the Hyundai plant in Montgomery, AL, you might want to drive your own product.

But if GM goes bankrupt, and that damages the brand name, everything from getting parts to resale value, there will be lots of voters in ruby-red states that will be pissed off. And they will have the Republicans to thank for destroying the integrity of the vehicles they find to be very important in their lives.

In the view of most Republican politicians, companies are more valuable than people. But they are only looking at the people of Detroit and saying in the words of Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL) that it's not a national problem. But if they listened to the people in their states, those that love to "buy American" and drive the products now being threatened by bankruptcy, they might realize it's a Southern problem and a Western problem, too.

A BUZZFLASH NEWS ANALYSIS

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