Congress and the Media seem to be applying campaign tactics to the domestic Auto's fight for Loans.
If you repeat incorrect facts long enough people will believe they are true.
Sunday, Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Alabama, claimed on NBC's "Meet the Press" that the automakers "don't innovate" and called them "dinosaurs."
Chevy will be first to market of all automakers (foreign and domestic) with an all Electric Vehicle and the Big 3 spend an industry leading $12 billion/year in R&D mostly on fuel effencent vehicles.
House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Calif., said the automakers need to restructure their businesses in exchange for federal aid.
Expenses have been slashed, management teams have been changed, new operating plans are in place and new innovative vehicles are in the pipelines.
And where are the demands of the same for the banks? Must have missed those.
The New York Times' Thomas Friedman, one of the industry's most constant critics, contends Detroit has picked the wrong products for the markets and waited too long to go green.
All 3 have many, many vehicles that offer 30 plus mpg and most of the new products coming out are all cars. And Detroit hasn't picked the wrong products, the buying public are the ones buying the Trucks and SUV's. The Big 3 were not forcing the public to buy them, the Big 3 had cars that they could have bought.
Newsweek commentator Robert Samuelson writes that back-breaking contracts with the United Auto Workers make the Big Three uncompetitive
Contracts signed last year gave major concessions to the automakers and new employees will be making considerable less then what the foreign automakers are paying. Also the Big 3 in 2010 will no longer be paying retiree health care, it's up to the UAW to pay that now. Not to mention the concessions that have been given up every year for the past 4 years by UAW members, a fact that nobody seems to mention.
Sounds like people are making excuses for not allowing the loans and setting up the Big 3 to take the fall for not getting loans.