My God, some sense from the party that ought to be the grown-up party, for a change.
Top Republicans Call for GM to Declare Bankruptcy
General Motors should hand over the factory keys to a bankruptcy court, two top Republicans said Sunday.
Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., said the best thing for the ailing automaker to do would be to go into Chapter 11 to reorganize some of its business agreements and come out stronger than before.
“I think the best thing that could probably happen to General Motors, in my view, is they go into Chapter 11, they reorganize, they renegotiate … the union-management contracts and come out of it a stronger, better, leaner, more competitive automotive industry,” McCain told “FOX News Sunday.”
House Republican leader John Boehner said the nation’s largest auto company must demonstrate a viable and long-term business plan if it wants more federal money.
Well, amen and hallelujah.
But depend on it: There’s always an asshole around throwing cold water on a sensible plan like that. Unfortunately, he’s a Republican (at least in name), and even more unfortunately, he’s from Michigan and thus has no perspective whatsoever on the problem.
But Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, R-Mich., told FOX News on Sunday that he disagrees with sending the auto companies into bankruptcy, calling it a “shallow approach” to dealing with a failure that would affect hundreds of thousands of workers.
“If GM and Chrysler are allowed to go in bankruptcy they will not come out,” McCotter said. “This will exacerbate the foreclosure crisis, it will continue to hurt the credit crisis.”
If they go into bankruptcy and don’t come out, maybe they shouldn’t be in business, period. If they stay in business without reorganization, they’re just going to suck more money out of the economy that isn’t there.
Which is pretty much what a lot of us have been saying for months and years.
McCotter added that the two companies are “actually restructuring” — as compared to Wall Street’s banks — and they shouldn’t be allowed to fail as they are trying to correct their problems.
Bullshit! They need to go into court-supervised reorganization in order to get rid of the onerous union contracts that are pulling them down. If you can’t see that, Rep. McCotter (and you can’t, because you’re too close to the problem), maybe you should just shut the fuck up.
Or cross the aisle, which is where it sounds like you belong.