Please tell me he was kidding --- No, probably not

Ok - this Auto Maker bail out has gone from bad to surreal. In an interview on Sunday, Our Dear Leader (BHO) said some contradictory things. He was talking about the conditions that would need to exist for the him to agree with bailing out the Big 3 automakers.

First, the statements with which I have problems:

• ..if they expect taxpayers to help in that adjustment process...then they better start building a fuel efficient car.
  
• They are making some investments in the kind of green technologies and the new batteries that would allow us to create plug-in hybrids. What we haven't seen is a sense of urgency...

So, what he is basically saying is that the government, in return for financial help, should basically mandate what kinds of products the car companies should make. Forget that I may not WANT a plug-in car. Or that the electrical grid is not sized to handle millions of plug-in cars. Or that we will need to burn a lot more coal (Remember - The Messiah hates coal more that even oil) to generate the electricity to power these toasters-on-wheels.

Later though, he did make two statements with which I totally agree:

• "We don't want government to run companies"

and

• "Generally, government historically hasn't done that very well."

(Editorial comment - that second one gets my vote for the "Understatement of the Year") award.

So, which is it? Will government mandate the products the companies will produce, or not? What kind of car to build is a MARKET based decision. This is not something that government knows a damned thing about. Just because the government mandates that you build a product does NOT mean you will be able to do so at a profit. That is what the MARKET is all about. But, the poindexters in Washington, as a group, know NOTHING about the market. Maybe we should remember who we are talking about here. This (government) is the same bunch that:

• Launched the 'war on poverty'. And after spending 7 Trillion dollars, all they have managed to do is destroy the Black family in this country (through the welfare programs) and create the blighted inner-cities.
  
• Created the Ponzi scheme known as Social Security - which will now run out of money about the same year I want to retire
  
• Created the sub-prime meltdown by forcing banks to make loans that were so risky that the banks had to be threatened with sanctions if they refused
  
• Managed to destroy public education in this country so that we have lost our lead in producing engineers, scientists, and computer geeks
  
• Continues to refuse to drill for our own oil
  
• Continues to give millions to the UN so that tin-horned dictators can thumb their noses at us - From our own soil
  

As I said in a previous post, unless a bailout goes along with a greatly improved cost structure, the bailout is pointless. It should NOT try to deal with what kinds of products the companies choose to produce. The automakers, in general, are pretty smart when it comes to understanding the market. They were REALLY dumb though in choosing what kinds of union contracts they accepted. If their cost structure is not fixed, it will not matter what kind of products they make - they will still be doomed.

Bottom line, The Messiah is right-sort of. Government sucks at running businesses - they should not even try.