Other Democrats May Write Off Ohio, But It's A Key State For Bernie's Campaign

Yesterday, not long after Georgia Republican Johnny Isakson noted that he deserves a whipping for his vicious bad-mouthing John McCain, Señor Trumpanzee was off to Lima Ohio. His for-TV-backdrop was an Abrams tank plant, which he says was destined for closure before massive new military spending ($2 billion for tanks) revived orders. That's on the other side of the state from General Motors' now-idled factory in Lordstown that Trump has been screeching about for a couple of weeks, blaming Mary Barra, GM's CEO, the auto workers union and anyone else but his own policies for the shutdown. In fact, many people say that it was his own misguided and ego-driven actions "to save manufacturing" that have been battering the auto industry and eating into the overall economy of Midwest "rust belt" states. Politico reported that his "tariffs on steel and aluminum have cost Ford and GM about $1 billion each" and noted that "Barra cited the tariffs in November when she announced the 14,000 job cuts that included the Lordstown plant’s shuttering. Potentially making things even worse, Trump is now weighing new tariffs on foreign automobiles that could threaten hundreds of thousands of additional U.S. jobs."

“The reality is auto tariffs would put Ohio into a recession,” said Dan Ujczo, a Columbus-based international trade lawyer who has been closely studying the impact of recent trade actions on Ohio companies.

Ultimately, that could jeopardize Trump’s support in the Mahoning Valley and other blue-collar Great Lakes regions that voted for him in 2016.

“He’ll lose those the second he puts auto tariffs on,” Ujczo said. “These people understand you can’t cut off your nose to spite your face.” According to a Morning Consult tracking poll, Trump’s approval rating in Ohio has fallen 19 percentage points since January 2017.

While Trump is focused on exhorting GM not to shutter the Lordstown plant, where it makes the compact Chevrolet Cruze model, the industry’s economic reality is much more complicated.

Trump’s simple formula of demanding that specific plants should stay open doesn’t account for the sophistication of the global auto industry. The auto making supply chain is global; foreign companies build cars in the U.S. but with some foreign-made parts. Likewise, cars made abroad often contain American parts. And automakers move workers from plant to plant as demand for different kinds of autos shifts.

GM says the Ohio plant is closing because demand has softened for the Cruze; the company says it is talking to workers about relocating to other facilities.

It’s unusual for any president-- especially a Republican one-- to tell private manufacturers how to run their businesses. “There’s a school of thought that these decisions are best left to the companies and the unions,” said Marick Masters, director of the labor studies program at Wayne State University in Detroit.

It's even more unusual for a president to blame a labor union for a plant closing. Dave Green, president of the United Auto Workers local at Lordstown, appears to have infuriated Trump Sunday when he said on Fox News that Trump's 2018 tax cut incentivized imports. Or perhaps Trump was irritated at Green for letting the press know in February that he'd written the president about the Lordstown closing in July 2018 and received no reply.

Whatever the specific provocation, Trump tweeted Sunday that "Democrat UAW Local 1112 President David Green ought to get his act together and produce," then followed up with a tweet that noted GM's Barra "blamed the UAW Union" for the shutdown, prompting an angry retort from the UAW: "Corporations close plants, workers don’t.”

Trump’s previous efforts to intervene in vehicle plant closings have resulted in tepid gains at best.

Trump lashed into Ford during the 2016 campaign for shipping jobs to Mexico, then claimed credit in early January 2017 when Ford, in an unrelated move, announced that it would create 700 jobs in Michigan to build electric and self-driving cars-- while simultaneously expanding two plants in Mexico.

Trump was similarly irate in June 2018 when Harley-Davidson said it would offshore an unspecified number of jobs to offset the impact of European tariffs imposed in retaliation to Trump’s steel tariffs. Trump was so furious that he said he’d support a boycott of Harley-Davidson, prompting the company’s steepest sales drop in nearly a decade.

Trump’s protectionist policies are cutting into profits for automakers, even though they employ far more workers than the steel and aluminum industries the tariffs are designed to protect.

The auto industry employs around a million people, while steel and aluminum less than one tenth of that (combined). Since Trump's ill-starred tariffs went interplay, the steel industry has added 6,200 jobs and the aluminum industry 100 new jobs. Trump's policies have triggered a very steep decline in investment in the auto industry. Economists are shocked not so much that "Trump doesn't seem to understand that the automobile production process involves intensely global supply chains," but that there's no one around him who can explain this to him and make him understand that his policies are harming American industry.

The Washington Post's David Ignatius noted that "Trump's angry, backward-looking approach may still appeal to some Rust Belt voters. But in the Ohio and Pennsylvania towns that helped win the presidency for Trump in 2016, his vow to turn back the clock hasn't worked out very well, and there are signs the Rust Belt may be corroding for him politically."

He explained that "Lordstown's struggles, like those of other nearby mill towns, illustrate the harsh fact that manufacturing is a dynamic process. Old jobs are disappearing because of changes in technology or consumer preferences; trying to resist change is usually a fool's game. Rust Belt communities that are succeeding are the ones that have adapted by embracing new technologies and innovation. Presidential leadership in this period of technological transition should focus on the future, rather than the past. But Trump seems almost a technophobe."

After Trump's Twitter tirade, Rep. Tim Ryan, the Ohio Democrat who represents the Lordstown area, fired back: "The President's tweet ... is offensive and does nothing to help bring back the manufacturing jobs he promised to my district."

Ryan argued that "the best thing is to help" GM renovate Lordstown and perhaps build electric vehicles there. Local residents said much the same thing to the Youngstown Vindicator this month: GM or a new owner should focus on new technology and making products people want to buy, rather than restore production of the low-selling Chevrolet Cruze.

Trump is vulnerable in the Rust Belt because he made such extravagant promises when he successfully wooed voters in 2016. "He won this area-- a largely Democratic area-- and he has not said a word yet, and that's just pathetic," warned Jim Graham a former UAW leader at Lordstown, in an interview with the Vindicator back in November, when GM said it planned to halt Cruze production there.

Local residents remember Trump's proclamation at a July 2017 rally in nearby Youngstown: "Those jobs [that] have left Ohio, they're all coming back... Don't sell your house." Tommy Wolikow, a Lordstown worker, told the Vindicator: "I kind of turned into a Trump supporter at that time. I believed what he said... Almost two years later, I'm seeing nothing but job losses."

Homeowners in Youngstown certainly haven't seen a boom. According to Zillow, the online realty broker, the median price for a house in Youngstown is $39,900. The national median price of homes currently listed is $279,000. Browse the real estate ads for mill towns across Ohio and Pennsylvania and you'll see just how tough it is to be a Rust Belt resident, trapped in a downward cycle.

What's the right answer for Rust Belt towns where the old manufacturing base has disappeared? An interesting example is Erie, Pennsylvania. Most big factories there have closed in recent years, but the city is rebuilding itself around its local universities and a big insurance company. Profits from a big gambling casino in Erie County are funneled partly to "innovation spaces" at four local campuses.

Erie may have lost manufacturing jobs, but it's above the state average in advanced industries, says Ben Speggen, a local journalist who helps run a think tank in Erie called the Jefferson Educational Society. "There has been a real shift in understanding that our Rust Belt economy is not solely tied to manufacturing," he says.

Another key to success is welcoming foreigners. About 10 percent of Erie's population is refugees, according to James and Deborah Fallows in their recent book, Our Towns. One of the 10 characteristics they found in successful local communities adapting to change is that "they make themselves open."

In the 2016 primaries Both Hillary and Bernie got more votes than Trump in Erie County. In fact, Hillary and Bernie together got 37,341 votes. All six Republicans combined took just 30,050. But after months of Trump's extravagant and baseless promises, he beat Hillary in the general election by 2 points. Two years later there was a significant change. In the 2018 midterms, Democrat Bob Casey beat Trumpist Lou Barletta in Erie county-- and by a lot, 58.4% to 40.0%. Governor Wolf did even better there, beating the right-wing Trumpist Scott Wagner 59.8% to 38.7%. Erie County is entirely in the 16th congressional district now and incumbent Mike Kelly was reelected 51.6% to 47.3% against a weak Blue Dog Democrat. But not in the Erie part of the district. The county gave the Blue Dog a massive D+20 margin, almost enough to overcome Kelly's lead in the other 4 counties. Does this foreshadow a Democratic win in Erie County in 2020? Most likely, yes, unless the Democrats nominate another mushy centrist, like Hillary, with nothing to offer but a slick campaign and a bio.

Midnight Meme Of The Day!

by Noah

Promises Made. Promises Broken. Promises never intended to be kept.

Putin rubs his hands in glee and pats the Manchurian President on the head. The Putin/Trump war on America and sellout of Americans continues. Accomplices in Congress encourage the treachery and urge it on, some with blatant efforts, some by doing nothing. All the while, Trump's supporters beg for more as they can't admit to themselves how viciously and ruthlessly they have been conned. "Hey, at least he brought back raw, rampant racism and stands up for misogyny!"

Some Trump voters even get to have the factory where they work close just in time for Christmas. Nice touch, Mr. Trump. Normal people can see your smirk and your shrug from ten thousand miles away. "But, hey, I got this nice red hat!" He'll sell you another one, too, suckers.

Cars, Jobs, Kentucky

Today Bernie did incredibly well in Kentucky but just couldn't penetrate the low-info precincts in Louisville and Lexington... not even with all the support he had from low-info precincts in coal country. Hillary, with all her gigantic "advantages," managed to scrape by with the narrowest 212,549 (46.8%) to 210,626 (46.3%) plurality. Bernie's strongest returns came from historic Harlan county in the extreme east of the state where he beat her 62.8% to 25.9%. Both candidates have been awarded 25 delegates each so far, with 5 remaining to be determined. And then the Oregon results came in... and Bernie took the lead with the first ballots counted and never lost it. A.P. called the race with just 60% of the vote counted and Bernie ahead 219,459 (53.0%) to 194,359 (47.0%) for the establishment candidate who stands for the status quo. (His lead has grown as more ballots were counted.)

After her big win-- fraught with the typical boss-ridden voting "irregularities"-- in New York, Hillary had declared the primaries over and said she wouldn't be competing with Bernie any longer, just campaigning against Trump. A couple of thumpings in Indiana and West Virginia cured her of that and she was all over Kentucky, a closed primary state that doesn't allow independents to vote. The main thrust of her campaign in Kentucky was to malign Bernie with a discredited lie she tried out-- and failed with-- in Michigan, namely that he had opposed the auto bailout.

Her technique, perhaps not as blatant as Trump's, was to simply mislead voters. Bernie voted for the auto bailout-- and she knows it. When it was shoved into the TARP Wall Street bankster bailout for her campaign financiers he voted no, while she, of course voted yes with great enthusiasm, which partially explains why so many independents and progressives will never vote for her to be president. TARP was to bail out the banksters and everyone knows it. She lost in Michigan because she was unable to deceive Democratic voters there. Maybe she thought Kentucky Democrats are dumber.

Her claim, PolitiFact, explained "leaves listeners with the impression that Sanders’ opposed bailing out the auto industry. But he voted in favor of providing auto companies with $14 billion, which was separate from the Wall Street bailout funds he opposed."

Yesterday one of Bernie's campaign spokespersons suggested she stop trying to distort the truth about his support for legislation to help carmakers and auto workers. Bernie, he said, voted for a $14 billion aid package which passed the House of Representatives on Dec. 10, 2008. When that bill ran into a Senate Republican roadblock, the White House turned to a separate Wall Street bailout fund for loans to the auto industry. "It is absolutely untrue to say that Sen. Sanders voted against helping the automobile industry and auto workers. Secretary Clinton first made this false claim before the Michigan primary. She now is recycling the erroneous charge in Kentucky. Once again, Secretary Clinton is simply not telling the truth... It is true that Sen. Sanders voted against bailing out the crooks on Wall Street whose illegal behavior and greed brought this economy into the worst downturn since the 1930s," the statement concludes.

Clinton and Sanders were both in the Senate at the time, and contrary to what Clinton implied Sunday, both supported the idea of an auto bailout.

Sanders argued that letting the auto industry go under was too big of a risk for middle-class workers-- it could lower wages across all sectors of the economy and have a ripple effect on states like Vermont that were fairly far removed from the auto industry. He was quoted by Vermont Public Radio at the time as saying:

The problem is if you don't act in the midst of a growing recession, what does it mean to create a situation where millions of more people become unemployed? And that could spread, and I have serious concerns about that. I think it would be a terrible idea to add millions more to the unemployment rolls.

But Sanders was vehemently against the larger $700 billion bailout to prop up the banks. (As evidenced by his presidential campaign, Sanders is no fan of Wall Street.) So he voted against the bank bailout.

The bank bailout was so big it had to be doled out in portions. In January 2009, Senate Republicans tried to block the Treasury Department from releasing the second half of the money, some of which was designated for the auto industry. Sanders, based on his opposition to the Wall Street bailout, voted against releasing that money as well.

Please consider helping Bernie win this thing, especially as crucial primaries in New Jersey and California come closer:

As Detroit goes bankrupt, if you see anything the city owns that you like, try offering the "emergency manager" a few bucks

See anything you like? Make 'em an offer. (Feel free to low-ball.)

"The best analogy I have heard for what is happening in Detroit is that this is a five-decade Katrina. Now, you either get a voluntary agreement from people holding long-term debt, or you get bankruptcy."

-- Peter Hammer, Wayne State University law professor
and director of the Damon J. Keith Center for Civil Rights

by Ken

The news is pretty stark. The Washington Post (with help from the AP) reports: "Deroit goes bankrupt, largest municipal filing in U.S. history."

Detroit filed the largest municipal bankruptcy in the nation's history Thursday afternoon, capping a long decline that left the nation's automaking capital bleeding residents and revenue, while rendering city services a mess.

The nation's fourth-largest city in the 1950s with nearly 2 million residents, the city has seen its populaton plummet to 700,000 as residents fled increasing crime and deteriorating services, taking their tax dollars with them.

The five-decade slide has left the city owing creditors some $19 billion and under the control of a state-appointed emergency manager. The manager has been negotiating with creditors from bond holders to pensioners to forge a plan to restructure the debt. But an agreement proved elusive as pensioners objected to benefit cuts and bond holders and insurers pressed the city to sell off assets to repay money the city borrowed to fund improvements and plug deficits.

I assume by now everyone is familiar with the death spiral that Detroit has been drawn into. It's a dramatically intensified version of the economic squeeze facing many of the country's old industrial cities.

The city's massive debt is matched only by a devastating loss of revenue and residents -- a long-term condition that has escalated in recent years.

The city's population has plummeted by 26 percent since 2000, while the unemployment rate has jumped from 7.3 percent to 18.6 percent. Property tax collections are down 20 percent and income tax collections are down by more than a third in just the past five years -- despite some of the highest tax rates in the state. Even casino taxes, a bright spot in recent years, are projected to decrease because of increased competition from nearby Toledo.

All of that has led to an alarming erosion of municipal services. The city is home to nearly 80,000 abandoned and blighted structures. It recently announced plans to close 50 of its remaining 107 parks. Police response times are up to nearly an hour, and 40 percent of the city's street lights do not work. Meanwhile, Detroit has the highest violent crime rate among the nation's big cities.

To back up a bit, the WaPo lead -- "Detroit filed the largest municipal bankruptcy in the nation's history" -- seems to me not quite correct. "Detroit" didn't file for anything. The city has certainly suffered more than its share of mismanagement. Now it has suffered the misfortune of having its fate determined by an ideological sociopath who should be on America's Most Wanted list: far-right-wing Gov. Rick Snyder.

Detroit emergency manager Kevyn Orr, who in June released a plan to restructure the city's debt and obligations that would leave many creditors with much less than they are owed, had warned consistently that if negotiations hit an impasse, he would move quickly to seek bankruptcy protection.

Orr was unable to convince a host of creditors, the city's union and pension boards to take pennies on the dollar to help facilitate the city's massive financial restructuring. If the bankruptcy filing is approved, city assets could be liquidated to satisfy demands for payment.

"Only one feasible path offers a way out," Gov. Snyder said in a letter to Orr and state Treasurer Andy Dillon, approving the bankruptcy.

Snyder determined earlier this year that Detroit was in a financial emergency and without a plan to improve things. He made it the largest U.S. city to fall under state oversight when a state loan board hired Orr in March. His letter was attached to Orr's bankruptcy filing.

"The citizens of Detroit need and deserve a clear road out of the cycle of ever-decreasing services," Snyder wrote. "The city's creditors, as well as its many dedicated public servants, deserve to know what promises the city can and will keep. The only way to do those things is to radically restructure the city and allow it to reinvent itself without the burden of impossible obligations."

A turnaround specialist, Orr represented automaker Chrysler LLC during its successful restructuring. He issued a warning early on in his 18-month tenure in Detroit that bankruptcy was a road Detroit and its creditors did not want to tread.

He laid out his plans in June meetings with debt holders, in which his team warned there was a 50-50 chance of a bankruptcy filing. Some creditors were asked to take about 10 cents on the dollar of what the city owed them. Underfunded pension claims would have received less than the 10 cents on the dollar under that plan.

Orr's team of financial experts put together said that proposal was Detroit's one shot to permanently fix its fiscal problems. The team said Detroit was defaulting on about $2.5 billion in unsecured debt to "conserve cash" for police, fire and other services.

"Despite Mr. Orr's best efforts, he has been unable to reach a restructuring plan with the city's creditors," the governor wrote. "I therefore agree that the only feasible path to a stable and solid Detroit is to file for bankruptcy protection."

You may recall that the Chrysler turnaround was accomplished with a highly friendly and supportive federal government looking on. Mr. Orr's collaborator in turning Detroit around is the scumbag governor. (On the plus side, at least Detroit didn't have to face the hatchets of those Southern senators who would have liked nothing better than to seal the doom of the country's unionized auto industry to benefit their scab auto makers.)

Naturally, in reducing Detroit's priorities to barest essentials, Mr. Orr found no essential so bare as the city's pension obligations. Far-right-wingers hate working people so much that they would do away with them entirely, as long as there would be somebody left to do, you know, some scraps of work.

The filing begins a 30- to 90-day period that will determine whether the city is eligible for Chapter 9 protection and define how many claimants might compete for the limited settlement resources that Detroit has to offer. The bankruptcy petition would seek protection from creditors and unions who are renegotiating $18.5 billion in debt and other liabilities.

Translation: Anything the city owns can be had for a price, and probably not all that high a price. So if there's anything you've got a hankering for, try making an offer. Just be sure not to direct it to anyone officially connected to the city of Detroit. Dump the cash in an envelope and send it to Kevyn Orr.

#

Mitt Romney-- A Car Guy?

Mitt Romney blurted out a fatuous statement a few weeks ago about being "a car guy." Well... his father was. And owns lots of them (cars, not guys)-- and even an elevator for some-- but the closest he is to being a car guy is that he kind of resembles a used car salesman-- in the worst sense of the term. The most recent polling in Michigan shows him losing, 52-46%. That's not unexpected. But the polls have also shown Obama consistently ahead in Ohio-- and Romney has always known that that would be a death knell for his campaign. Tuesday they either steal Ohio or they have zero chance to win. And a lot of the explanation for why Ohio voters haven't bought into Romney has to do with cars. "Let Detroit go bankrupt," Romney's OpEd in the NY Times on November 18, 2008 plays badly in a state where so many jobs depend on the auto industry. That editorial is killing Romney's chances. and so are a slew of newspaper editorials reminding Ohio voters of it-- and of Romney's dishonest attempts to flip flop around the issue. Let's start with the editorial from the Akron Beacon yesterday, False Facts. It cuts Romney's credibility to shreds and shows why Ohio voters see him as a slimy, untrustworthy used care salesman:

The television ad launched by the Romney campaign this week about the auto rescue is accurate-- at least technically. President Obama did take General Motors and Chrysler into bankruptcy. Fiat did buy Chrysler, and Chrysler does plan to build Jeeps in China. Missing is the helpful context, the component that exposes just how misleading the Romney campaign has been in the way it has chosen to arrange its three facts.

That context has been provided in recent days by media fact-checkers, editorial pages, even executives at GM and Chrysler. Worth emphasizing is that Romney himself (at other turns in the race) has embraced the bankruptcy route, arguing it was his idea in the first place. In early 2009, the Obama White House weighed whether even to rescue Chrysler, its finances in such deep trouble. The conclusion was: Let’s proceed-- if favorable terms can be reached to make a sale to Fiat.

Chrysler will build in China, reflecting, if anything, the company gaining strength in the wake of the rescue, and more, a global firm doing the logical thing, building in markets where it sells. As the company stressed, that will not affect American operations, including Jeep production here, which has nearly tripled since the rescue.

The past three years, Chrysler has added more than 11,000 American jobs. General Motors reports that it has “brought nearly 19,000 back to work.” Remember, the Center for Automotive Research projected in November 2008 the loss of nearly 2.5 million jobs, many in Ohio, if one or more of the American automakers failed.

And that was a real prospect, GM and Chrysler running out of money, unable to secure private financing to keep operating in bankruptcy. Then, the Obama White House stepped up, the money coming as long as the automakers developed a credible plan for restructuring.

The barrage of criticism hardly caused the Romney team to flinch. It upped the ante with a radio ad suggesting the auto rescue helped China at the expense of auto workers here. The argument is as lame as its earlier contention that the bailout was all about favoring the United Auto Workers, a form of “crony capitalism.”

Actually, the auto workers joined others in getting a haircut, losing wages, benefits and job security. An independent trust fund with the job of managing the health benefits of auto worker retirees received a stake in both GM and Chrysler because the companies were broke and couldn’t meet their contractual obligation.

In other words, the trust took a risk. So did the president, and it has paid off for Ohio and other states heavily invested in making autos.

The day before, the Toledo Blade pounded Romney with a double whammy. Their editorial Auto Toxin was lethal: "In the final few days of the presidential contest, Mitt Romney evidently recognizes that his opposition to the federal rescue of General Motors and Chrysler is costing him voter support he needs in Ohio and Michigan. So the Republican nominee is conducting an exercise in deception about auto-industry issues that is remarkable even by the standards of his campaign." The Blade editors go on to explain to their readers that Romney's claims, simply put, rest on a tissue of boldfaced and purposeful lies. A business news story in the same paper the same day nails the point home, with hard facts about how well Jeep is doing in Toledo. (Of course, Romney-owned companies made a habit-- and still are today-- of shipping jobs to China and other low-wage hellholes even when companies were doing well, so Romney and his sleazy plutocratic partners could fatten their already bulging wallets regardless of what it did to working families-- or the American economy.

Chrysler, which owns Jeep and in which the Italian automaker Fiat has a majority stake, quickly denied the report. A company spokesman said Mr. Romney’s rhetorical leap “would be difficult even for professional circus acrobats.” But the Romney campaign launched an ad in Ohio that claimed that President Obama, who presided over the auto bailout, “sold Chrysler to Italians who are going to build Jeeps in China.”

Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne removed all doubt about his company’s intentions this week in an email to employees: “Jeep production will not be moved from the United States to China,” he said. “Jeep assembly lines will remain in operation in the United States and will constitute the backbone of the brand. It is inaccurate to suggest anything different"

He acknowledged that Chrysler intends “to return Jeep production to China, the world’s largest auto market, in order to satisfy local market demand, which would not otherwise be accessible.” The company also wants to avoid heavy import duties. But that’s a long way from Mr. Romney’s insinuation that the automaker is shipping jobs from Toledo to China.

Mr. Marchionne noted that Chrysler is investing $500 million in its Toledo assembly complex and plans to add 1,100 jobs there by next year, largely to build a successor to the Jeep Liberty sport-utility vehicle. He vowed “that the iconic Wrangler nameplate, currently produced in our Toledo, Ohio, plant, will never see full production outside the United States.”

And Romney's been lying about General Motors as well-- the same lies to the same audiences and executives in that company-- who have also tried to stay out of politics-- are steaming mad at the Republicans now. GM, which has hired 4,500 new hourly workers and thousands more new salaried workers at plants across the country since being bailed out by Obama, finally spoke out about Romney's calumny: “At this stage, we're looking at Hubble telescope-length distances between campaign ads and reality.” GM spokesman Greg Martin said. “GM's creating jobs in the U.S. and repatriating profits back to this country should be a source of bipartisan pride.”

Turns out, of course, it isn't just auto executives who are angry about Romney's campaign of lies and deception. Greg Palast reported Thursday on how poorly that crap is going over with the UAW. They're going to sue him-- for profiteering from the auto bailout!

For Mitt Romney, it's one scary Halloween. The Presidential candidate has just learned that tomorrow afternoon (November 1) he will be charged by the United Automobile Workers (UAW) and other public interest groups with violating the federal ethics in government law by improperly concealing his multi-million dollar windfall from the auto industry bailout.

At a press conference in Toledo, Bob King, President of the United Automobile Workers, will announce that his union and Citizens for Responsibility and Ethics in Washington (CREW)  have filed a formal complaint with the US Office of Government Ethics in Washington stating that Gov. Romney improperly hid a profit of $15.3 million to $115.0 million in Ann Romney's so-called "blind" trust.

The union chief says, "The American people have a right to know about Gov. Romney’s potential conflicts of interest, such as the profits his family made from the auto rescue. It’s time for Gov. Romney to disclose or divest.”

“While Romney was opposing the rescue of one of the nation’s most important manufacturing sectors, he was building his fortunes with his Delphi investor group, making his fortunes off the misfortunes of others,” King added.

The Romneys' gigantic windfall was hidden inside an offshore corporation inside a limited partnership inside a trust which both concealed the gain and reduces taxes on it.

...According to ethics law expert Dr. Craig Holman of Public Citizen-- who serves as an advisor on the charge-- Ann Romney does not have a federally-approved blind trust.  An approved "blind" trust may not be used to hide a major investment which could be affected by Romney if he were to be elected President. Other groups joining the UAW and CREW include Public Citizen, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), Public Campaign, People for the American Way and The Social Equity Group.

President Obama's approved trust, for example, contains only highly-diversified mutual funds on which presidential action can have little effect.  By contrast, the auto bail-out provided a windfall of over 4,000% on one single Romney investment. In 2009, Ann Romney partnered with her husband's key donor, billionaire Paul Singer, who secretly bought a controlling interest in Delphi Auto, the former GM auto parts division. Singer's hedge fund, Elliott Management, threatened to cut off GM's supply of steering columns unless GM and the government's TARP auto bailout fund provided Delphi with huge payments. While the US treasury complained this was "extortion," the hedge funds received, ultimately, $12.9 billion in taxpayer subsidies.

As a result, the shares Singer and Romney bought for just 67 cents are today worth over $30, a 4,000% gain.  Singer's hedge fund made a profit of $1.27 billion and the Romney's tens of millions.

The UAW complaint calls for Romney to reveal exactly how much he made off Delphi-- and continues to make. The Singer syndicate, once in control of Delphi, eliminated every single UAW job-- 25,000-- and moved almost all auto parts production to Mexico and China where Delphi now employs 25,000 auto parts workers.

What about President Obama? Are you wondering if he's finally calling Romney on his bullshit. He sure is! He was in Ohio yesterday... and the glovers came off. About time!

[C]hanging the facts when they’re inconvenient to your campaign-– well, that’s definitely not change. But that’s exactly what Governor Romney has been doing these last few weeks. Right here in Ohio, you’ve folks who work at the Jeep plant who have been calling their employers, worried, asking if their jobs were being shipped to China. And the reason they’re been making these calls is because Governor Romney has been running an ad that says so. Except it’s not true. Everyone knows it’s not true. The car companies themselves have told Governor Romney to knock it off. GM said, “we think creating jobs in the United States… should be a source of bipartisan pride.” And I couldn’t agree more.

   And I understand that Governor Romney has had a tough time here in Ohio because he was against saving the auto industry. And it’s hard to run away from that position when you’re on videotape saying the words “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt.” And I know we’re close to an election but this isn’t a game. These are people’s jobs. These are people’s lives. These car companies are put a lot of effort to make great product but also to make sure everybody in America knows how committed they are to making cars here in America. And so you don’t scare hardworking Americans just to scare up some votes. That’s not what being President is all about. That’s not leadership.

When I first made the decision to rescue the auto industry, I knew it wasn’t popular. Despite the fact that one out of eight jobs in Ohio are connected to the auto industry in someway, it wasn’t even popular in Ohio. But I also knew it was the right thing to do. I knew betting on American workers was the right thing to do. Betting on American ingenuity and know how was right thing to do. That bet paid off. It paid off in Lordstown, where GM is investing hundreds of millions of dollars in their auto plant. It paid off in Toledo, where Chrysler is adding more than 1,000 new jobs on a second shift-- not in China, right here in Ohio. Right here in the United States of America.

When Democrats brought up the auto bailout it passed the then Democratically-controlled House 237-170. All the Republican leaders-- Boehner, Cantor, McCarthy, Sessions-- and many who find themselves in tight electoral battles today-- like Buck McKeon (R-CA), Mary Bono Mack (R-CA), Patrick McHenry (R-NC), Ed Royce (R-CA), Todd Akin (R-MO), Steve King (R-IA), Connie Mack (R-FL), Joe Pitts (R-PA), Jim Matheson (Blue Dog-UT), Michele Bachmann (R-MN), Dan Lungren (R-CA), Brian Bilbray (R-CA), John Kline (R-MN), Mike McIntyre (Blue Dog-NC) and Heather Wilson (R-NM)-- voted with Romney against bailing out the auto industry. They were on the wrong side of history. Every one of them should be defeated at the polls Tuesday.

   I think it's almost funny that the 32 Republicans who did the right thing and voted with the Democrats against their own leadership are 100% silent on the issue now. You don't hear Paul Ryan, Fred Upton, Dave Camp, Peter King, Joe Barton, Don Young or Mike Rogers bragging today that they weren't with their sociopathic leadership on this one. They're all laying low-- even though they made the right decision for a change.

Obama Is Suing China Again... What Would Mitt Do-- Or What Would Adelson Let Mitt Do?

While the media and the silly Romney campaign continues to argue about his Swiss bank accounts, his tax havens in the Cayman Islands and Bermuda and how the tens of millions of dollars he stashed abroad could have been used to invest or re-invest here at home to create jobs, his campaign is being funded by money coming from a Chinese prostitution racket. Organized crime kingpin Sheldon Adelson is the biggest single contributor to the Republican Party and to Romney's campaign and Romney refuses to return the tainted Chinese cash.

The Romney sideshow didn't distract President Obama yesterday when it came to China, though. He took the first steps towards instituting a suit against China with the WTO over China's cheating over auto exports. The President's point is that China unfairly imposed duties on the American exports, duties that violate international trade rules. Romney may make bellicose noises about China's trade policies but he's firmly in bed with Chinese industrialists. Scott Paul, Executive Director of the Alliance for American Manufacturing, made it clear that Obama's approach is the right one for American manufacturers and workers.

American workers and manufacturers strongly support President Obama’s decision to launch a trade enforcement action against China’s unfair auto tariffs. The deck in China is stacked against American automakers and workers, and this case will help to level the playing field.
  
Less than one percent of the estimated 18 million vehicles sold in China last year were made in America, despite the fact that the Detroit Three brands are growing more popular every day.

This Administration has a stellar record on enforcing America’s trade laws and has not hesitated to take action to defend American workers-- today’s announcement is further proof of that. But, there is more work to do.

Chinese auto parts are surging into America, aided by Chinese government subsidies. Unless strong steps are taken now to also defend American auto parts jobs, the efforts of the auto companies, unions, and the Administration to revitalize the American auto sector could be washed away in a matter of a few years.

The Obama Administration complaint says the damages are over $3 billion. U.S. Trade Representative Ron Kirk made it clear that Obama plans to continue “to hold China accountable for its WTO commitments.”

Under WTO rules, countries are allowed to impose punitive tariffs to offset damage from both subsidies and dumping-- selling products at below market value-- but the U.S. contends that in this and other cases, China has used those remedy measures in an unfair and retaliatory way to hurt American exporters.

Last month, the U.S. successfully challenged Chinese tariffs imposed on American high-technology steel products and has also disputed tariffs levied on chicken products.

White House spokesman Jay Carney told reporters Thursday that the Chinese duties cover more than 80 percent of U.S. auto exports to China and fall disproportionately on General Motors, or GM, and Chrysler because of the actions Obama took to support the auto industry during the financial crisis.

...China and the U.S. are at odds over a slew of trade issues. In March, the U.S., the European Union and Japan brought a trade case against China over its curtailment of exports of rare earth minerals over whose production China has a virtual monopoly. Those minerals are used to manufacture hybrid car batteries, flat-screen televisions and other high-tech goods. China says curbing rare earth exports is for environmental protection, not intended to help Chinese companies.

With American manufacturers still struggling to recover from the financial crisis, and unemployment running over 8 percent, the administration is keen to show it is getting tough on discriminatory trade practices by its chief economic rival-- also its main foreign creditor-- blamed by many in the U.S. for a loss of American manufacturing jobs.

Republican candidate Mitt Romney has accused Obama of being too soft on China. The Obama campaign has accused Romney of outsourcing jobs to China when he ran a private equity firm.

Asked about whether Thursday’s announcement was timed for political effect, Carney said the action “has been in development for many, many months” and the timing was determined by the U.S. Trade Representative’s office.

Republicans make a lot of noise about China but China has preferred the GOP's outsourcing and off-shoring policies and has illegally helped finance the Republican takeover of the House and several pro-China Republican Senate candidates, particularly Ron Johnson and Pat Toomey, each of whom advocates very pro-China policies much to the detriment of American workers and American manufacturers. Adelson's biggest source of money is from his shady activities in China and he certainly acts-- and donates-- in their interests. His support of Romney should be a major red flag for American manufacturers and American workers.

A Different Approach To Making America Work: Cars

Today Republicans are angry that Obama didn't fail & that the auto bailout worked

There was a lot of celebrating in Detroit yesterday-- not to mention at the White House-- when it was announced that Chrysler had repaid, with interest, the $5.9 billion loan it got from the U.S. Treasury to keep afloat. “The loans gave us a rare second chance to demonstrate what the people of this company can deliver,” Chrysler CEO Sergio Marchionne said. “We owe a debt of gratitude to those whose intervention allowed Chrysler Group to re-establish itself as a strong and viable carmaker.” That would be President Obama + 205 Democrats and 32 House Republicans. The Auto Industry Financing And Restructuring Act passed 237-170 on the evening of December 10, 2008. Led by Boehner and Cantor, 150 Republicans (+ 20 sleazy Blue Dogs, most of whom were defeated in the next election) voted against rescuing the auto industry. Don't they look foolish today?


The total Chrysler returned to the Treasury, including interest and other loans, was $10.6 billion-- which represents a full recovery of all the money the Obama Administration put towards rescuing the company and saving all the jobs, ancillary businesses and communities involved-- six years ahead of schedule. And this comes just a few weeks after GM’s announcement of a $2 billion expansion, which will result in the creation or retention of 4,000 jobs spread across 17 facilities in eight states. We’re starting to see second shifts and stronger sales all across the country. In Michigan, as well as in Indiana, Pennsylvania, and Missouri, since GM and Chrysler emerged from bankruptcy, the auto industry has added 115,000 jobs-- the fastest pace of job growth in the auto industry since the 1990s. This is what President Obama said just about one year ago (April 30, 2009):

"Chrysler has not only been an icon of America's auto industry and a source of pride for generations of American workers; it's been responsible for helping build our middle class, giving countless Americans the chance to provide for their families, sending their kids to college, saving for a secure retirement. It's what hundreds of thousands of autoworkers and suppliers and dealers and their families rely on to pay their bills in communities across our industrial Midwest and across our country."

That didn't appeal to Republicans and notorious vulture-capitalist Mitt Romney led the way with a horrific editorial in the NY Times just before the House vote: Let Detroit Go Bankrupt. Americans today can see how wrong he was in 2008 when he wrote that "If General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye. It won’t go overnight, but its demise will be virtually guaranteed." Because Romney's nasty and predictable anti-worker message was widely ignored, the auto industry is getting back on its feet today and helping lead the nation out of the Bush-Republican Recession. Romney, who is best known in American politics as the ultimate values-free flip-flopper is trying to re-write history today-- but the NYTimes caught him red-handed:

In 2009, Mr. Romney said Mr. Obama’s plans for rescuing the automobile industry were “tragic” and “a very sad circumstance for this country.”

A Romney spokesman said on Tuesday that the president’s plan was modeled after one Mr. Romney advocated in 2008.

“Mitt Romney had the idea first,” said Eric Fehrnstrom, a Romney spokesman, citing the Times opinion article. “You have to acknowledge that. He was advocating for a course of action that eventually the Obama administration adopted.”

...“Mitt Romney must think that the entire country has fallen into a state of amnesia if he believes he can get away with this revisionist history,” said Brad Woodhouse, a spokesman for the Democratic National Committee. “The record is clear. Mitt Romney would have let G.M. and Chrysler go bankrupt without extending them a dime of federal assistance.”

Democratic officials noted that Chrysler and General Motors received the federal aid only after they entered bankruptcy — not before, as Mr. Romney’s spokesman asserted.

And they said the bankruptcy’s success depended on the federal money.

“Mitt Romney is doing circuslike contortions to get out from under the damaging words he uttered in 2008,” said Jennifer M. Granholm, a former Democratic governor of Michigan.

Here's what the President said yesterday, Republicans still jeering his decision to save the American auto industry:

Chrysler’s repayment of its outstanding loans to the U.S. Treasury and American taxpayers marks a significant milestone for the turnaround of Chrysler and the countless communities and families who rely on the American auto industry. This announcement comes six years ahead of schedule and just two years after emerging from bankruptcy, allowing Chrysler to build on its progress and continue to grow as the economy recovers. Supporting the American auto industry required making some tough decisions, but I was not willing to walk away from the workers at Chrysler and the communities that rely on this iconic American company. I said if Chrysler and all its stakeholders were willing to take the difficult steps necessary to become more competitive, America would stand by them, and we did. While there is more work to be done, we are starting to see stronger sales, additional shifts at plants and signs of strength in the auto industry and our economy, a true testament to the resolve and determination of American workers across the nation.

Chrysler's sales rose 22.5% in the first quarter, ahead of the overall auto industry, which was up by 19.6%. Chrysler made a profit of $116 million in the quarter, their first since 2006, when Republican economic policies had started to kick in and devastated the auto industry and the entire economy.

China Is Now The World's Biggest New Car Market

I just sort of stumbled into the music business. I mean, I liked music a lot-- especially when I was high-- but by the time I started my own indie label I hadn't used any drugs in a decade. After a 24/7 stoned and alienated Vietnam War era college career, I went to live abroad for nearly 7 years. It was wonderful, but negotiating for 50 kilos of best quality black hash in Mazar-i-Sharif, smuggling rayon saris from India to Sri Lanka, coconut oil from Sri Lanka back to India and cases of Johnnie Walker Black Label from Pondicherry to Madras didn't exactly enhance any career trajectories or make me employable-- or so I thought. Eventually I settled down in Amsterdam, where I worked at a macrobiotic restaurant in a meditation center, de Kosmos, teaching astrology, darkroom work as a form of meditation and a course in bread baking without eating or speaking.

Now none of that exactly lead directly to becoming the president of one of the biggest record companies in the world. But it helped... a lot. When Seymour Stein, head of Sire Records, first hired me to work at Warner Bros (Sire's corporate home), he was probably the single most internationally-oriented executive in the music business. His phenomenal success as an A&R man had a lot to do with being overseas a lot and catching on to trends and specific artists making an impact there and looking promising for this market. Among his overseas signings were Fleetwood Mac, Depeche Mode, The Smiths, Erasure, The Cure, the Pretenders, Yaz, Falco, k.d. lang, Seal, The Cult, Ofra Haza, Barenaked Ladies, Soft Cell, artists that have brought in tens of millions of dollars in profits to TimeWarner. Never mind any personal traits Seymour may have seen in me, he wanted me at Sire because I had staked my bet (music biz-wise) on cutting edge, progressive, new wave music and because I understood, through life experience, something about marketing internationally. (I mean, all that whiskey I was selling Indians on the steps of the YMCA in Madras...)

Once I was at Warner Bros. I noticed that virtually the only experience most of the senior staffers had in regard to the world outside of America was on that vacation they had once taken to Hawaii. The overwhelming attitude at the company was that "we make records for the U.S. and whatever we sell abroad is gravy." I delicately tried pointing out that the gravy was started to runneth over and that we were now (then) selling more Madonna, more R.E.M., more Neil Young, more Jane's Addiction, more Lou Reed, more Eric Clapton, more Prince, more Joni Mitchell, more Rod Stewart, more Chili Peppers, more Enya, even more-- especially more-- Ramones outside of the U.S. than in the U.S. (True, we were still selling more Van Halen, Vince Neil, Bulletboys, Honeymoon Suite, Chicago and Damned Yankees in the U.S., but... feh!)

It was always incredible for me to watch how the senior VPs sat with rapt attention when some intrepid staffer returned from a grueling trip abroad-- no McDonalds, horrifying driving habits, funny languages-- to regale us all with their big adventures, only to find out that "doing international" had meant a 2 day trip to London!

There was no reason in the world, by any kind of corporate logic, that I would have made president of Reprise. There two dozen people more senior than me when it happened. But the fact that I had, again, made the right bet on the right genre-- if corporate rock were on the upswing I would have been the last person considered-- and it was now becoming abundantly clear that they had to have someone who knew something about the international marketplace. I kept an office in London and I never missed an opportunity to visit and work closely with our companies in Hamburg, Paris, Toronto, Milan, Tokyo, Hong Kong. I'm certain I was the only Warner exec-- aside from Seymour-- who had visited our subsidiaries in Cairo, Bangkok, Prague, Istanbul, Stockholm, Brussels, Hilversum, Bombay, Mexico City, Singapore, Madrid... My only regret was that we didn't have offices in Marrakech and Katmandu.

So what brought all this on today? The Guardian-- ironic that I got it there, of course-- ran a story that caught my attention: China Overtakes US as World's Biggest Car Market. Sales in China grew by 45% and fell in the U.S. by 21% in 2009.

China sold more than 13.5m vehicles last year, the official Xinhua news agency said today, compared with 10.4m cars and light trucks sold in the US, the lowest level in 27 years... China was not expected to exceed the US market until 2020 but the speed with which the recession affected consumers in the States combined with incentives from the Beijing government to help buyers accelerate the trend.

China's communist government cut sales taxes on smaller, fuel-efficient cars and spent $730m on subsidies for buyers of larger cars, pickup trucks and minivans. Stimulus spending on building highways and other public works also helped to boost sales of trucks used in construction.

The U.S. should have owned the international car market. I still travel a lot overseas. I see lots of Japanese cars and lots of German cars, but very few American cars. We were in Italy and Albania last month. I don't think I saw one American-car in Italy and only one in Albania. They made some bad choices in Detroit... when they were swimmin' in gravy.



UPDATE: On The Other Hand...

A friend of mine in Michigan says GM's partnership deals-- which are famous for manufacturing cars overseas, depriving Americans of jobs at home-- are paying off (for the company, at least) in China, as well as in burgeoning car markets in India, Brazil and Russia.

There'll Be A Snap Vote Today If They've Bribed And Blackmailed Enough Members To Vote For The European Bank Bailout

I spoke to a sympathetic Hill staffer yesterday who works for a Midwestern congressman. His boss isn't too keen about voting for the billions and billions of dollars for European bank bailouts that Rahm Emanuel had tacked onto the War Supplemental. His seat isn't that secure. His boss had voted "yes" on the supplemental on May 14 when it first came up, not because he thinks it's a great idea but because he bought into the Dave Obey premise that Obama deserves a year to get the Afghanistan situation under control. It didn't do any good to argue that the West has been trying-- futilely-- to get the Afghanistan situation under control since Alexander the Great got bogged down there in 330 BC. (Alexander took a few months subduing the world's greatest empire of the day, Persia, but couldn't overcome the unruly tribes of Afghanistan for years-- until he finally told Hephaestion, his boyfriend and soul mate, to go sleep in another tent and married Roxanna, an Afghan chieftain's daughter.)

Anyway, to balance the disagreeable nature of the foreign bank bailout, something likely to cost the Democrats at least a couple dozen House seats in 2010, Emanuel tacked on another piece of legislation-- one that had already passed overwhelmingly and is absolutely essential for congressmen in auto industry districts, colloquially known as Cash For Clunkers. They can't vote against what has turned into a real Frankenstein creation, even if it could also be a Democratic congressional caucus suicide pact.

Emanuel hoped that by gratuitously attaching the car bill to the IMF bailout he could count on holding onto a batch of nervous Democrats-- and pressure some Republicans. Recall, 59 Republicans broke with Boehner and Cantor to cross the aisle on June 9th and vote for Cash for Clunkers. Some of them are the exact targets Emanuel has been trying to woo away from the hysterical Cantor in the Supplemental battle, particularly Michigan Republicans like Thaddeus McCotter, Fred Upton, Dave Camp, Vern Ehlers, Candice Miller and Mike Rogers. Emanuel figured it could also give him a shot at John Shimkus (R-IL), Mike Turner (R-OH), Patrick Tiberi (R-OH), Mark Souder (R-IN), Don Manzullo (R-IL), Joe Pitts (R-PA), Tim Johnson (R-IL), Steve Austria (R-OH), Steve LaTouette (R-OH), Jo Ann Emerson (R-MO) and a few other Midwestern Republicans whose constituents have been devastated by the auto industry collapse. Of course that goes for plenty of Democrats as well, particularly Midwest freshmen Mark Schauer (D-MI), Gary Peters (D-MI), Andre Carson (D-IN), and Marcia Fudge (D-OH), Debbie Halvorson (D-IL), Bill Foster (D-IL) and Steve Driehaus (D-OH).

And now Shailagh Murray is reporting that Emanuel, desperate like in the good old days when he was shoving NAFTA up Democrats' rear ends, is actually trying to sell this Frankenstein monster as a bill for flu vaccines. Creepy! What is he doing-- holding Americans' health hostage so he can bail out European banksters? What's next-- trying to pick up more support by attaching the abolition of Don't Ask Don't Tell? This is getting out of hand. Obama needs a new Chief of Staff.


UPDATE: Cars For Clunkers Could Be Stripped Out Of The Bill By The Senate

My sharp-eyed friend Bob from Democrats.com read a story in today's National Journal that points out that Emanuel's strategy for luring Michigan congressmen into voting for the European bank bailout is flawed because the provision can be-- and probably will be-- stripped out by the Senate.

If the House passes the measure, it will go to the Senate, where Republicans may try to strike a provision from the supplemental that would provide $1 billion for the first year of a program that would give drivers a voucher for up to $4,500 to buy or lease a fuel-efficient car if they trade in a less-efficient vehicle.

Under Senate rules, Senators may strike provisions of a conference report that were not in the bill passed by either chamber. Senate Republicans could raise a point of order on the floor to strike the language, which would take 60 votes to waive.

Senate Budget ranking member Judd Gregg said last week the "cash for clunkers" provision of the bill could be subject to the rule, but his office would not confirm that he would raise a point of order against the provision.

Having failed at every step, Emanuel-- part of whose job is to keep Obama from looking like a grubby politician-- had to ask the president to take time out of his day to call wavering Democrats. Bailing out European banks is apparently very important to Obama; Chris Bowers explains why defeating this horrible mish-mash of a bill is also very important to progressives. Emanuel has completely failed; he's a disaster. Debbie Wasserman Schultz, AKA- "Rahmette," sounded especially pathetic today on MSNBC trying to defend Emanuel's Frankenstein Supplemental crap bill. She'll lose the Democrats control of the House:




UPDATE: Supplemental Passes Narrowly

After Emanuel larded it up with all kinds of goodies, threatened and bribed every member he could, the Democratic Suicide Pact passed 226-202. The only Michigan Republican who bought into Emanuel's bullshit about the Cash For Clunkers was Candice Miller. Five of them voted against the war. The 32 courageous Democrats who voted no:

Tammy Baldwin (D-WI)
Michael Capuano (D-MA)
John Conyers (D-MI)
Lloyd Doggett (D-TX)
Donna Edwards (D-MD)
Keith Ellison (D-MN)
Sam Farr (D-CA)
Bob Filner (D-CA)
Alan Grayson (D-FL)
Raul Grijalva (D-AZ)
Mike Honda (D-CA)
Marcy Kaptur (D-OH)
Dennis Kucinich (D-OH)
Barbara Lee (D-CA)
Zoe Lofgren (D-CA)
Eric Massa (D-NY)
Jim McGovern (D-MA)
Mike Michaud (D-ME)
Donald Payne (D-NJ)
Chellie Pingree (D-ME)
Jared Polis (D-CO)
José Serrano (D-NY)
Carol Shea-Porter (D-NH)
Brad Sherman (D-CA)
Jackie Speier (D-CA)
Pete Stark (D-CA)
John Tierney (D-MA)
Niki Tsongas (D-MA)
Maxine Waters (D-CA)
Barbara Watson (D-CA)
Peter Welch (D-VT)
Lynn Woolsey (D-CA)

So who'd we lose from the May 14th vote? These are members who were either "persuaded" by Emanuel or who really believe that taking 100 billion taxpayer dollars and bailing out failed European banksters is a good idea: Yvette Clarke (D-NY), Steve Cohen (D-TN), Jim Cooper (Blue Dog-TN), Jerry Costello (D-IL), Barney Frank (D-MA), Luis Guitierrez (D-IL), Jay Inslee (D-WA), Steve Kagen (D-WI), John Lewis (D-GA), Ed Markey (D-MA), Bob Matsui (D-CA), Jim McDermott (D-WA), George Miller (D-CA), Grace Napolitano (D-CA), Richard Neal (D-MA), Jim Oberstar (D-MN), Jan Schakowsky (D-IL), Mike Thompson (Blue Dog-CA), Edolphus Towns (D-NY), Nydia Velázquez (D-NY), and Anthony Weiner (D-NY). How did Emanuel talk so many Democrats into committing political suicide? Cash.

David Swanson at AfterDowningStreet.com explains what happened today if you feel like delving into it a little further.

Cash For Clunkers Passes House By A Big Margin

Each is too old for a trade in voucher

Betty Sutton's bill, H.R. 2751, colloquially dubbed "Cash For Clunkers," passed yesterday evening 298-119. 59 Republicans of all stripes abandoned their party's leadership to vote with the Democrats-- from right-wing extremists like Steve King (IA), David Dreier (CA), Phil Gingrey (GA) and Gary Miller (CA) to mainstream conservatives like Frank LoBiondo (NJ), Mike Castle (DE) and Chris Smith (NJ). 110 knee-jerk obstructionist Republicans-- kooks and extremists like Michele Bachmann (MN), Mean Jean Schmidt (OH), Patrick McHenry (NC), Virginia Foxx (NC) and John Shadegg (AZ) stuck with the lockstep anti-progress leadership of John Boehner (OH), Eric Cantor (VA), Mike Pence (IN) and Paul Ryan (WI).

Unless the 100 mini-presidents in the House of Lords kills it, the one-year trade-in program would start upon enactment of the legislation, rather than being retroactive to March 30, which is what Sutton first proposed. Oddly, vehicles made before 1984 are ineligible for the rebate.

Under the bill, consumers could receive a voucher worth as much as $4,500 for the purchase or lease of a new, fuel efficient vehicle upon trading in the less efficient passenger car, SUV or truck.

To receive a voucher of $3,500, the consumer must purchase a new car that gets at least four more miles per gallon. To receive a voucher for $4,500, the new car must have a rating at least 10 mpg higher.

For a light-duty truck or SUV, the old truck must have a rating of 18 mpg or less. To receive a voucher of $3,500, a consumer must purchase a new vehicle rated at least two miles per gallon higher. To receive a voucher for $4,500, the new vehicle must get at least five miles per gallon more.

The bill had 51 co-sponsors including Michigan Republicans Fred Upton, Thaddeus McCotter, Mike Rogers, Candice Miller, and Dave Camp as well as committed progressives like Carol Shea-Porter (NH), Tammy Baldwin (WI), Dave Loebsack (IA) and Marcy Kaptur (OH). Eric Massa (D-NY) was effective in explaining why the bill is a positive to his economically hard-pressed district in New York's Southern Tier. "I'm proud to have voted for the cash for clunkers program because it's a good deal for our environment and our economy. This program will help keep our auto manufacturers and auto dealers in business and help consumers purchase 21st century clean automobiles. It's a win-win solution and I'm glad we've been able to pass this overwhelmingly bipartisan program to help get America back to work."
 
Even two of the most reactionary lobbying groups in America, the U.S. Chamber of Commerce and the National Association of Manufacturers joined with the Democrats and the unions in supporting the bill. Many Republican congressmen running for higher office gave Boehner and Canter the finger and voted for it too, even usual rubber stamps like Matt Blunt (R-MO), Jim Gerlach (R-PA), and Pete Hoekstra (R-MI), respectively running for the Senate, a Lt Governorship and a Governorship. (Adam "Howdy Doody" Putnam, who's giving up his House seat to run for Florida Agricultural Commissioner, ducked the vote entirely.

If Obama Wants To Get Serious About Rescuing The Country Nationalizing Failed Banks Looks Like The ONLY Option

A huge error that must be corrected, quickly

Last week we wrote quite a bit about Alan Grayson's Pay for Performance Act of 2009, a law that means to end the Republican "no strings attached" bailouts of big corporations. Under Grayson's bill, the Treasure Department has oversight of compensation for companies taking taxpayer money so that there will be no more instance like $3.5 billion (of $10 billion in bailout money) going directly into the pockets of the banksters (in the form of unjustifiable "bonuses"), as happened under Bush's bailout "plan." Grayson's bill was supported by every single Democrat, including the Blue Dogs, in the House Financial Services Committee-- and two Republicans broke with the obstructionists and voted for it as well.

With Republicans screaming bloody murder-- and calling for their smelling salts-- Grayson reminded the American people that "This bill will show which Republicans are so much on the take from the financial services industry that they're willing to actually bless compensation that has no bearing on performance and is excessive and unreasonable. We'll find out who are the people who understand that the public's money needs to be protected, and who are the people who simply want to suck up to their patrons on Wall Street."

Grayson's bill passed by a wide margin, 247-171, 10 Republicans abandoning their party's corporate maters to vote "yes" and, shamefully, 8 Democrats voting with the GOP, mostly reactionaries who habitually vote with Republicans on core issues-- the Walt Minnicks (Blue Dog-ID) and Harry Mitchells (Blue Dog-AZ).

But before Grayson's vote came to the floor on April 1, another Blue Dog corporate whore, Melissa Bean (IL), offered an amendment meant to water down the bill for her Big Business campaign contributors. Her amendment, which was opposed by most Grayson and by the vast majority of Democrats (190)-- but, naturally enough, embraced by Republicans-- is meant "to allow institutions that enter into a payment schedule with Treasury on terms set by Treasury to no longer be subject to the bonus and compensation restrictions created by the Act." It passed 228-198.

Even with the public so angry about the banksters blatantly ripping off the public and holding the economy for ransom until their self-entitled greed is sated, virtually all Republicans plus reactionary Democrats like Bean and her ilk, are still counting on everyone forgetting or just getting over it by the 2010 midterms. Bean doesn't represent, in the true sense of the word, the working families of Lake and McHenry counties. She represents the special interests who have lavished immense sums of money on her. The sector which would be most salubriously effected by her sneaky amendment-- finance/insurance.real estate-- has funneled $1,725,806 into her political career, far more that the average House member. And they know they can always count on her to sell out her constituents and lead like-minded Democrats across the aisle to vote with Republican shills serving the same corporate masters.

Yesterday at Salon Glenn Greenwald pointed out why we can't even turn to the executive branch for relief from Wall Street and their minions in Congress. Obama's two top economic advisors, Tim Geithner and Larry Summers are as in the pockets of Wall Street as you;d expect any Republican bucket of slime to be.

Lawrence H. Summers, one of President Obama's top economic advisers, collected roughly $5.2 million in compensation from hedge fund D.E. Shaw over the past year and was paid more than $2.7 million in speaking fees by several troubled Wall Street firms and other organizations....

Financial institutions including JP Morgan Chase, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs, Lehman Brothers and Merrill Lynch paid Summers for speaking appearances in 2008. Fees ranged from $45,000 for a Nov. 12 Merrill Lynch appearance to $135,000 for an April 16 visit to Goldman Sachs, according to his disclosure form.

Glenn accuses Summers of taking "advance bribes" from Goldman Sachs and Merrill Lynch and it would be impossible for anyone to look at the evidence and interpret it any other way. "And," Glenn reminds us, "it's paying off in spades."

People like Rubin, Summers and Gensler shuffle back and forth from the public to the private sector and back again, repeatedly switching places with their GOP counterparts in this endless public/private sector looting.  When in government, they ensure that the laws and regulations are written to redound directly to the benefit of a handful of Wall St. firms, literally abolishing all safeguards and allowing them to pillage and steal.  Then, when out of government, they return to those very firms and collect millions upon millions of dollars, profits made possible by the laws and regulations they implemented when in government.  Then, when their party returns to power, they return back to government, where they continue to use their influence to ensure that the oligarchical circle that rewards them so massively is protected and advanced.  This corruption is so tawdry and transparent-- and it has fueled and continues to fuel a fraud so enormous and destructive as to be unprecedented in both size and audacity-- that it is mystifying that it is not provoking more mass public rage.

And it wasn't just Glenn writing about this yesterday. The Washington Post didn't miss very clear signals from the Obama Administration that they plan to protect the banksters-- not just from angry mobs with pitchforks, but from any attempt by Congress to recoup the stolen money. They're giving in to demands from the banksters that they won't cooperate with Obama's rescue package, not even if it plunges the country into a decade of Depression, unless they get all the money they decide they are entitled to. And Openwheel in Michigan makes the point that the auto industry bondholders and investors won't budge an inch until they get theirs-- regardless of the fact that the government already funneled billions of taxpayer dollars their way-- the no strings attached kind. Apparently they believe that money is their due and not something meant to help rescue the nation.

Nationalization should have been the answer months ago. It will save us a lot of money and misery if Obama makes the move tomorrow morning. The Sunday Guardian has some shocking news-- and it makes more sense than most of what we've been hearing from Obama's economic team. Elizabeth Warren works for Congress, not for the Obama banksters, and as the TARP watchdog she's about to demand the removal of the nation's top failed banksters!

Warren, a Harvard law professor and chair of the congressional oversight committee monitoring the government's Troubled Asset Relief Program (Tarp), is also set to call for shareholders in those institutions to be "wiped out". "It is crucial for these things to happen," she said. "Japan tried to avoid them and just offered subsidy with little or no consequences for management or equity investors, and this is why Japan suffered a lost decade." She declined to give more detail but confirmed that she would refer to insurance group AIG, which has received $173bn in bailout money, and banking giant Citigroup, which has had $45bn in funds and more than $316bn of loan guarantees.

Warren also believes there are "dangers inherent" in the approach taken by treasury secretary Tim Geithner, who she says has offered "open-ended subsidies" to some of the world's biggest financial institutions without adequately weighing potential pitfalls. "We want to ensure that the treasury gives the public an alternative approach," she said, adding that she was worried that banks would not recover while they were being fed subsidies. "When are they going to say, enough?" she said.