Corker raises prospect that Obama is seeking to help Blue State automakers over Red
"This is a remarkable move by the federal government -- I think unprecedented in the history of this country. ... What does this signal send to other corporations and financial institutions about whether the federal government will fire them as well?" -- Senator John McCain on the Wagoner firingRick Wagoner was the CEO who pushed the Big Trucks and SUVs model for General Motors these past few years. Despite, higher gas prices at some intervels, the two combined for one of GM's only profit making enterprises. Now, the Obama administration is pushing the Big Trucks/SUV enthusiasts out the door, in favor of those advocating smaller, some say, "golf cart" looking automobiles.
Kudlow (RCP):
In President Obama's speech on Monday about the Wagoner firing, as well as in Treasury term sheets for GM and Chrysler, there are multiple references to "the next generation of clean cars," to new CAFE-standard mileage increases, and to green power-train developments. All this is a big green climate-change priority for the new administration.Meanwhile, NoQuarter blog is breaking the insider story of the Wagoner "beheading"
But the simple fact is, small, tinny, and expensive green cars just don't work for consumers...
So add the green revolution to the industrial-policy plans of the White House. Expect a big increase in CAFE fuel standards, even though small cars are simply not profitable. And plan on bailout nation taking a new left-turn toward the kind of central planning that has held down economic growth in Europe and Japan for so very long.
The WSJ reports that GM’s Rick Wagoner and Fritz Henderson were summoned to D.C. on Friday, to the Treasury office of Steven Rattner, selected by PBO last month to head the Department’s auto-industry task force. Mr. Rattner “broke the news to Mr. Wagoner in person at his office at Treasury,” and then met with the temporary replacement, Mr. Henderson. Bloomberg confirms the Friday meetings in “GM’s Wagoner Steps Aside After Failing Obama Scrutiny.”Blog editor Larry Johnson then raises the prospects of David Axelrod, and Senators Debbie Stabenow and Carl Levin from the heavily Fed-subsidized, Big Union State of Michigan, involved in the behind-the-scenes coup.
Below: Who knew about the Friday beheading — that bloody coup d’état! — before the story broke Sunday night? Who didn’t know? …
Tennessee Senator Bob Corker takes it a step further, suggesting straight-out partisan politics at the heart of the firing of GM head.
Bob Corker seems to believe so. From the Chatanooga Times:U.S. Sen. Bob Corker, R-Tenn., said today that the firing of General Motors Corp. CEO Richard Wagoner doesn’t address the failure by the Obama administration to move GM toward a more sustainable future.Of course, all the states with Toyota, Honda and Nissan plants just happen to also be in Right-to-Work states like Alabama, South Carolina, Texas and Tennessee.
The Tennessee senator also raised the prospect of whether the Obama administration may use the federal loans to GM to direct the auto maker to help Democratic states over states that voted Republican, such as Tennessee.
“It’s been a long time since Washington has seen the kind of kowtowing that’s about to occur among members of Congress trying to curry favor with the administration to keep plants in their states open, and it will be interesting to see if the administration makes these decisions based on a red state and blue state strategy or based on efficiency and capable, skilled workers at each plant,” he said. “If they use the latter, our GM plant in Spring Hill, Tennessee should do very well.”
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