Southern States Gave Auto Companies Tax-breaks and Cash for Training

[KenH]

Well, now we know why southern Republicans are against saving the American auto industry - the same auto industry that used its manufacturing might to enable the Allies to win World War II.


Foreign Auto Makers Won Billions in Government Subsidies

Southern States Gave Auto Companies Tax-breaks and Cash for Training

By Mike Lillis 12/16/08 8:54 AM

To hear Southern Republicans tell the story, the financial burdens facing Detroit’s automakers are self-made troubles to be settled by the laws of Adam-Smith capitalism.

“We don’t think it is the role of government to intervene,” Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) told the Fox Business Network last week. “We need to let the market and the laws work the way they are already in place.”

Yet this argument — that the government has no business interfering in free markets — ignores an increasingly frequent tradition among Southern states, which have fronted billions in local taxpayer dollars in the past two decades to attract foreign auto plants. Those incentives, arriving in the form of tax breaks, training for new employees and even land, have enticed BMW to South Carolina, Mercedes to Alabama and Nissan to Tennessee. The result of the government subsidies has been the steady emergence of the South as an auto-manufacturing powerhouse. Some are dubbing it the “New Detroit” – a region where real estate is cheap and the labor’s not unionized.

Not coincidentally, these Southern states are represented by the same coalition of GOP senators who led the fight against the recent Detroit bailout proposal. That legislation would have provided $14 billion in emergency bridge loans to General Motors and Chrysler, both of which say they lack the finances to survive the month. Rallying behind the animated opposition of GOP Sens. Bob Corker (Tenn.), Richard Shelby (Ala.), Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and South Carolina’s DeMint, Senate Republicans killed the legislation.

- rest at http://washingtonindependent.com/22236/cars

 

[rbell]

yes, and we all know that the big 3 never got any tax incentives...

You're really reaching on this one.

And southern senators aren't against "saving the auto industry." Even you know that. That statement is propagandic.

 

[KenH]

yes, and we all know that the big 3 never got any tax incentives

I find it rather ironic that southern Republicans want to protect automakers from a country such as Japan(remember Pearl Harbor?) and a country such as Germany(which declared war on the United States after the Pearl Harbor attack), yet turn their backs on American automakers and unions that worked to enable the United States and its allies to defeat Japan and Germany in World War II.

 

[Revmitchell]

Well, now we know why southern Republicans are against saving the American auto industry - the same auto industry that used its manufacturing might to enable the Allies to win World War II.


Foreign Auto Makers Won Billions in Government Subsidies

Southern States Gave Auto Companies Tax-breaks and Cash for Training

By Mike Lillis 12/16/08 8:54 AM

To hear Southern Republicans tell the story, the financial burdens facing Detroit’s automakers are self-made troubles to be settled by the laws of Adam-Smith capitalism.

“We don’t think it is the role of government to intervene,” Sen. Jim DeMint (R-S.C.) told the Fox Business Network last week. “We need to let the market and the laws work the way they are already in place.”

Yet this argument — that the government has no business interfering in free markets — ignores an increasingly frequent tradition among Southern states, which have fronted billions in local taxpayer dollars in the past two decades to attract foreign auto plants. Those incentives, arriving in the form of tax breaks, training for new employees and even land, have enticed BMW to South Carolina, Mercedes to Alabama and Nissan to Tennessee. The result of the government subsidies has been the steady emergence of the South as an auto-manufacturing powerhouse. Some are dubbing it the “New Detroit” – a region where real estate is cheap and the labor’s not unionized.

Not coincidentally, these Southern states are represented by the same coalition of GOP senators who led the fight against the recent Detroit bailout proposal. That legislation would have provided $14 billion in emergency bridge loans to General Motors and Chrysler, both of which say they lack the finances to survive the month. Rallying behind the animated opposition of GOP Sens. Bob Corker (Tenn.), Richard Shelby (Ala.), Mitch McConnell (Ky.) and South Carolina’s DeMint, Senate Republicans killed the legislation.

- rest at http://washingtonindependent.com/22236/cars

So?................

 

[Bro. Curtis]

I find it ironic that the people who say the repubs are owned by big business are the same ones who say we gotta save these dinosaurs.

 

[Revmitchell]

I find it ironic that the people who say the repubs are owned by big business are the same ones who say we gotta save these dinosaurs.

To be fair they are not interested in saving the companies. They are only interested in saving the Unions current contracts.

 

[Bible-boy]

If the American Auto bail out comes at the price of socializing/nationalizing the industry and placing Trade Union reps on the industry's boards of directors (See the CPUSA's "Bill of Rights Socialism") then we are better off to let them go to bankruptcy and let them work their way through the free market system to salvage themselves. Delta Airlines did it and the big three can do it too.

 

[KenH]

I want to save 3 million American jobs. I love my country and want to see her people prosper.

It is clear that many(most?) in the Republican Party do not love this nation and don't care if 3 million jobs go away.

I am more interested in seing our nation recover from the Bush Administration/Republican Party-caused recession(depression?) than in following some stupid pure free market idiot-ology, I mean ideology.

 

[rbell]

I want to save 3 million American jobs. I love my country and want to see her people prosper.

It is clear that many(most?) in the Republican Party do not love this nation and don't care if 3 million jobs go away.

Nice class, there, Ken.

If anyone disagrees with you, they hate America.

Wow. You 'bout said it all, right there.

Thanks for making so powerful a point, though unintentionally.

 

[KenH]

Well, rbell, it's about time that the Republican Party was exposed for what it is - anti-American worker, anti-American manufacturing.

If the Republican Party had its way we would all be flipping hamburgers for a living.

 

[Bible-boy]

I want to save 3 million American jobs. I love my country and want to see her people prosper.

It is clear that many(most?) in the Republican Party do not love this nation and don't care if 3 million jobs go away.

You are over exaggerating what would happen if one or all of the big three went into bankruptcy. If they did all of their production would not stop and never return. Did Delta Airlines completely stop flying when it went into bankruptcy? No. Did Delta Airline layoff all of its employees when it went into bankruptcy? The whole purpose of commercial bankruptcy is to allow the business to cut the fat, restructure, pay some of it debts, write off others, and come back leaner and stronger than before. Delta Airlines is now the largest U.S. Air Carrier.

 

[KenH]

Who is going to make an intermediate to long term investment in a vehicle of a bankrupt company? Very few people.

Purchasing a vehicle is not the same thing as purchasing a ticket for a three hour airplane ride.

 

[Bible-boy]

Who is going to make an intermediate to long term investment in a vehicle of a bankrupt company? Very few people.

Purchasing a vehicle is not the same thing as purchasing a ticket for a three hour airplane ride.

Nice Dem talking points. I'm not in the market for a new car right now. However, if I were I would not think twice before purchasing a Chevy or Chrysler tomorrow (I don't buy Fords after the way they treated me when servicing my 1988 Mercury Cougar).

 

[LeBuick]

God story Ken, it shows it's ok to subsidies foreign companies in red states but let the big 3 in blue states go belly up.

 

[carpro]

If they return to a fiscally viable company thru bankruptcy process and make a quality product at a good price, people will buy them.

As for me, if the UAW doesn't get off their high horse and get with the program, I have bought my last big 3 manufactured vehicle...ever.

Instead I will begin to purchase the superior American built Toyotas or Hondas or others proudly built by Americans in right to work states for a decent wage.

 

[KenH]

However, if I were I would not think twice before purchasing a Chevy or Chrysler tomorrow.

They aren't in bankruptcy at tonight - in spite of the efforts of many in the Repubican Party to destroy this segment of the American manufacturing base.

 

[KenH]

If they return to a fiscally viable company thru bankruptcy process

If they go into bankruptcy you can kiss the American automakers good-bye. Then again, that is probably what a lot of Republicans want - the destruction of the American manufacturing base on the altar of their stupid "free" trade ideology.

 

[carpro]

If they go into bankruptcy you can kiss the American automakers good-bye.

Common fear mongering tactic.

And if that's all they're sellin'...

I ain't buyin'.

Just like their overpriced cars and trucks.

 

[Bible-boy]

They aren't in bankruptcy at tonight - in spite of the efforts of many in the Repubican Party to destroy this segment of the American manufacturing base.

I suppose the term metaphor is lost on you... You know what I meant.

 

[rbell]

If they go into bankruptcy you can kiss the American automakers good-bye. Then again, that is probably what a lot of Republicans want - the destruction of the American manufacturing base on the altar of their stupid "free" trade ideology.

You're losing it, man.

Any other wild accusations you care to throw out?

On other threads, I've pointed out...

• The embedded costs unions add.
• The fact that a Honda made in AL is likely more "American" than the Chevy made in Detroit (imported parts, etc).
• The Consumer Reports bombshell--the "big 3" can get almost no cars on the "must buy" list; yet they are the majority of the "don't buy" models.
• The unhealthy influence unions are having in manufacturing.
• My own personal experience--watching union folks vandalize my car & threaten me.

You, however, respond with spiteful invectives.

I'll take my facts over your accusations 8 days a week.