The scaled down version of a bailout for the Big Three Auto Makers failed to pass the US Senate today, because the Republican demands weren’t met. Most of those demands involved a demand for fast union acceptance of a wage cuts.

Earlier in the evening, Reid said a tentative deal had been reached and the Senate could vote on legislation as early as Thursday night, but just hours later he asked to invoke closure to end the nighttime legislative session.

The Associated Press reported the deal was held up over the United Auto Workers’ refusal to accede to Republican demands for swift wage cuts. (source – CBC News)

Given how so much hype as been made about the big corporations, and how they are all in huge financial trouble, one has to step back for a minute or two, and ask a few hard questions.

LIKE HOW IS THIS THE EMPLOYEES FAULT?

Seriously, we have the Republicans pushing HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS OF DOLLARS to huge giant corporations, like AIG & FANNY MAE, FREDDIE MAC, and yet when it comes to bailing out the Auto Industry, they demand wage cuts of the labor force.

THOUSANDS OF JOBS ARE OUTSOURCED and yet the Republican Party demands that to get a bailout of 15 Billion dollars, the union has to agree to massive wage cuts, and now, not think about it, but now.  Yet at the same time, the upper level management of AIG that got 150 BILLION DOLLARS IN BAILOUT CASH is receiving millions in bonus money. That after spending millions in incentive pay bonuses, preceded by spending tons of mone on fancy retreats and spa treatments for its elite managerial staff.

WHY DOES THAT SOUND LIKE A RIP OFF?

Didn’t this whole spiral effect come about because mortgage brokers got greedy, and suckered in thousands upon thousands of people into sub prime mortgages. They put millions into foreclosurer, and now it is expected that another EIGHT MILLION OVER THE NEXT FOUR YEARS  could wind up in default.

Then didn’t the Oil Industry jump aboard, and suddenly everything got more expensive. The solution for employers was to cut their labor force, ot to move it offshore, to take advantage of cheaper labor. Thanks in large part to the Free Trade deals of the Bush Administration, American Workers got shafted, and now are throwing HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS OF DOLLARS INTO BAILING OUT THE VERY PEOPLE THAT WANT TO PUT THEM OUT OF WORK.

And our Mr. Harper has the exact same policy, and plan. Free Trade with Columbia, that now makes their standards, acceptable for our consumers. Their low, third world standards, now allow them to sell their goods here, cheaper, and what do we get?

LAID OFF.

The truth is, that perhaps the solution lies, not in giving big business more tax breaks, or in even giving them BILLIONS OF TAXPAYER MONEY, but lies in investing into our country. In building our country back up, by replacing worn out bridges, by developing new industries to take us off the fossil fuel spiral, in developing strategies to rebuild our industrial base, is a more effective use of our money.

Mr. Harper & Mr. Bush both forgot the one simple fact, the money they have been tossing at the Corporate Elite is OUR MONEY. The truth is, these huge conglomerates have caused this mess, so why should we bail them out?

75 BILLION DOLLARS has been given my Mr. Harper to the banks. The Bank of Canada has dropped the prime interest rates to a forty year low, but has your debt load dropped? Is your job more secure today, or are you being asked to once more give up a raise?

Has your job been shipped off to some third world nation? Has your health care been protected, how about your old age security plan? Your Pension?  While Mr. Harper plans to make some Senate Appointments before Christmas, one has to wonder, why isn’t as determined to prevent a recession from worsening?

The Americans have to wait till Januay 20 before they can get rid of Bush, and make real changes to how their economy will be driven. Mr. Harper wants us to wait till the end of January, to tell us how he plans to help our economy, and one has to ask.

WHY DO WE HAVE TO WAIT?  IT IS OUR MONEY.