Dwight Eisenhower first encountered Wilson while serving as the Army's Chief of Staff in the postwar years; in 1952, after Ike was elected President, Wilson was his choice for the job of Secretary of Defense.
"You Men." Washington, although it eventually became quite fond of him, never understood Charlie Wilson—and Detroit's Wilson certainly never understood Washington. The Wilson remarks that would have passed for wry banter in a General Motors boardroom became matters of controversy in the capital's political climate. During the closed hearings of the Senate Armed Services Committee on his confirmation, Wilson made a comment that was widely misquoted and was to dog him throughout his governmental years. According to the press, Wilson told the Senators: "What's good for General Motors is good for the country." What he actually said: "For years I thought that what was good for our country was good for General Motors, and vice versa."
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Times have changed. The opposite is true. GM and Chrysler should be driven out of business. Instead President Obama and Congress are spending unimaginable sums of tax payer money to save these companies. They will remain more unchanged than the President would like to admit.
The auto industry is joined at the hip with the oil industry. I can understand why oil wants to cling to auto but why does auto continue to cling to the fuel source that is its ruin? It suggests a level of mismanagement that is still pervasive.
Former Republican Speaker of the House of Representatives Newt Gingrich has been accusing the Democrats of wanting to punish the American people, equating any policy that discourages certain activities with punishment. There are many Republican backed examples but the most appropriate is their perpetual opposition to universal health care. If a citizen becomes unemployed that person must then start to pay for health care. Now that's punishment.
If the United States had universal health care there would not be contention between two natural allies: retired auto workers and those currently employed. The worst of the Chrysler creditors are resisting the federal government's attempt to ease Chrysler into organized bankruptcy. Some speculators recently bought Chrysler debt at bargain rates figuring the feds would pay off when bankruptcy came. Obama is now caught in an embarrassing position, one of many, as he suffers from his congenital condition of trying to split every hard decision down the middle and making a mess of the whole thing.
Why do conservatives love pollution? They use every excuse no matter how silly to protect it. They would have us believe that we need to keep the polluting auto industry in tact to protect its suppliers and dealers. We need to continue polluting the galaxy and weaken national defense to help car dealers?
Bite the bullet. In 18-24 months the pain will be over. Suppliers will have adapted or changed to other business. Dealers? Who cares?
Obama is doing what Bush was doing when the financial industry began to crumble in September. Obama protects unworthy industries and their rich leaders.
What is good for this country is to break with the past. Let dieing industries die a natural death. Help new industries replace them. General Motors has been bad for the country for a very long time.
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