Because it's the right thing to do? Because it is one of the principal reasons that American automobiles have lost their competitiveness, thereby threatening their very survival? Because no major aid to an ailing company or companies comes without strings even in a purely capitalist environment? No, that was Bush, as the video in this thread has painstakingly documented in no uncertain terms.
The day of reckoning on the automotive issue was bound to come one day. As an observer of 55 mph and two oil crisis, something was going to have to be done eventually. Volkswagen and most of the Asian mfgs. are ready. I grew up in the American car culture, and hate to see Detroit iron literally melting down before our very eyes, but the reasons have been discussed on ET ad nauseum. Be careful in your euphoria over Obama. He ain't your friend no matter what popular propagandists may say.
Obama gave money to AIG then made sure that AIG honored all contracts and then pitted rich against poor when the contracts were paid out. Don't even try to say that the AIG compensation fiasco was not orchestrated by Obama to demonize the rich.
Whenever I hear a statist say "it's the right thing to do" it highlights exactly how wrong it is. Hey Thundermutt, how does that Kool-Aid taste?
Please forgive me. You are an unthinking drone and it was unkind of me to attempt to engage you in a thoughtful exchange. My apologies.
ET has really gone to hell. The trading threads are filled with single digit I.Q.'s, folks whose Rosetta Stone coursework for English requires practicing on U.S. message boards, dopey kids who don't even know there was a pretty big stock correction earlier this decade, and then complete losers like you. You Thunderdog are the sickest, sorriest, biggest cock sucking, mother fucking, disingenuous piece of foreign shit I could possibly imagine ever reading. Does the typical leader of a totalitarian society favor less restrictions on personal firearms owners? Or cut the taxation rate to his fiefdom? Or fight a war with only volunteers? Or allow people like Soros, Moore, Franken, Maher, Olberman, Dowd etal to not only criticize his every move but make tens of millions in the process? Without an iota of trouble from Federal agencies at his disposal? Ask critics of Nixon or Clinton how often the IRS came a calling. After assholes accused him of allowing an unbelievable act of terrorism to occur on "his watch"-the administration along with a few ULTRA-LIBERAL members of the Senate like John Edwards and Diane Feinstein drafted an Act that passed the Senate 98-1. Since then other than convicted murderer Jose Padilla I don't know of a single American citizen who has accused the government of holding him as a combatant and denying him habeas corpus. You know what dictators do to guys like Padilla? They shoot them on the spot. Padilla was instead tried and convicted. The COCKSUKERS who seek to limit free speech, seek to disarm the populace and seek to IMPRISON people for not SLAVING for the government are LEFTISTS LIKE OBAMA, PELOSI and YOURSELF.
Back in the day I had '71 GTO that was an absoulutely Pone Tang magnet that got maybe 10 mpg. I also had a 56 Chevy Truck that my dad and I replaced the stock inline 6 with 350 and one bad ass breathing exhaust system. HE was always so pissed that I was burning the tires right off it. Now the wifey drives a Toyota Prius (which I love to drive BTW) that gets 52 mpg high/mountain/city. I drive a BMW x35d that gets 34 mpg even with me running it like hell. BMW has made it so clean and so efficient that it gets only 265hp but is also gets 450 lb-ft of torque. Man is that fun stuff. Times change bro....President Barry is 100% spot on with his latest CAFE mandate. Had Bush done something like this instead of spending our blood and treasure then the OPEC countries would be sucking dick for beer money.