The Truth about the Auto Bailout issue

[EndElectoral]

http://www.forbes.com/sites/davidkiley5/2016/03/07/clintons-charges-that-sanders-did-not-support-auto-rescue-is-wrong/#6e390a9a582b

Clinton's Charge That Sanders Did Not Support Auto Rescue Is Wrong
by David Kiley

With the Michigan primary coming up Tuesday, Democratic party front-runner Hillary Clinton is trying to paint her challenger, Bernie Sanders, as having been against the auto bailout in 2009. Chalk it up to election year nonsense. The truth is both candidates were in favor of the auto bailout.

In the world of Congressional votes, the truth is seldom seen, but much mischief can be made.

During the debate in Flint, Michigan, a visibly tired Sanders did a poor job of explaining the confusion. I am not a Sanders supporter, but the truth is always important.

Secretary Clinton is chastising Sanders in the Motor State for not voting for the bill that created the funding for an auto bailout. Except, it wasn’t known that the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) bill, designed to bail out Wall Street banks from their subprime mortgage loan debacle that was crashing the economy, would be used to rescue the auto industry at the time Senators Sanders and Clinton voted on it. Clinton voted yay. Sanders voted nay. It was President Bush who signed the bill into law.

Later, in December 2008, the Senate took up a separate bill that would have provided rescue funds specifically for the auto industry. That bill failed to get the 60-vote filibuster-proof minimum when Republicans balked at saving General Motors GM -2.06%, Ford and Chrysler, in large part because they wanted to use the occasion to try and destroy the United Auto Workers union, which stood to benefit from a bailout by having their healthcare fund and pensions protected, and its interests prioritized over bond holders. Both Clinton and Sanders voted for this bill.

Tell the real truth Hillary not selectively for your own personal gain. The truth is you voted for a TARP bill designed to bail out Wall Street bankers, a bill that had at the time no bailout attached to the auto industry. Really pretty despicable politically to try and turn this into something you know it was not.

[pat_k]

1. And Bernie has a great ad out that sets the record straight! (link to audio)

https://berniesanders.com/radio-ad-sets-record-straight/

[Samantha]

2. The paragraph about wanting to destroy the United Auto Workers union is very important

That is exactly what some politicians wanted to attempt. Remember when Corker stepped out and emphatically said, "Let Detroit go bankrupt!" I was stunned. All I could think about was all those people who had worked for decades and were nearing retirement being threatened with seeing their retirement benefits headed towards a bankruptcy court. How frightening.

But behind Corker's remarks was the fact that he was protecting Nissan, which had a factory in Tennessee at that time. The Union was talking to Nissan employees, trying to persuade them to unionized. That left a very bad taste in Corker's mouth, he had to protect Nissan, so when he saw an easy way to erase the threat of Nissan employees being influenced by the Union, he just figured the easy way out was to let Detroit fail, taking down the union and adversely impacting the retirement benefits of the workers there.

Shameful and disgusting. I still to this day cannot stand to look at that man. I credit President Obama with running the interference there....

Sam