Apparently, my Senator (who I share a name with, coincidentally) is doing something right, if he makes the Kostards rage like this:
Collegiality taken too far becomes clubbiness, and clubbiness is just on the other side of a fine line from corruption.
The Democratic Senate leadership is veering ever so close to crossing that line.
Tennessee Senator Bob Corker said yesterday that a crisis like the U.S. automakers’ fight for survival can create opportunities by forcing people to look at things in new ways.
The first-term Republican might just as well have been talking about his own career. . . .
“I’m hard-pressed to think of another member who’s been here such a short period of time who’s made such an impression on colleagues of both sides of the aisle,” says Senate Republican Leader Mitch McConnell of Kentucky.
Majority Leader Harry Reid seconded McConnell’s assessment. “I’ve been extremely impressed with Bob Corker,” says Reid, a Nevada Democrat. Illinois Senator Dick Durbin, the No. 2 Democrat, says Corker did a “magnificent job.” . . .
[Chris] Dodd says wage-reduction demands had more to do with jabbing the Democrats’ loyal union constituency than with reforming the automobile industry. . . . Still, “you’ll hear no criticism from me about how Bob Corker handled himself,” Dodd says. “I respect him immensely for stepping up and making the effort.”
Let’s make this very plain. Bob Corker just led the charge to kill the American auto industry, and with it some 10% of the American economy, because he wasn’t allowed to bust the UAW. As such, Bob Corker is definitionally one of the most traitorous and despicable human beings ever to track slime across the floors of the Senate. He is attempting to take advantage of the financial crisis to literally dismantle the American middle class. He is beneath the contempt with which partisans regard even their most radical and craven domestic political opponents. And to see three of the most prominent leaders of the party that portrays itself as the party of working Americans line up to commend this sanctimonious puppet of big money, this enemy of working Americans . . . well, it’s disgusting. There’s really no other word for it.
There is a sickness in the Senate if the people who are supposed to fight for working Americans have anything but utter revulsion for Bob Corker.
The comments in this post are hilarious, too. Someone called “George Pirpiris” says asks, “Why is Maryland fast becoming the most conservative Blue State on the East Coast.” Kostards, being unable to actually stay on topic, will just ramble on about some other stupid subject.
Democrats are just so blind to the reality of the situation that they can’t do anything but scream on their crappy little blogs. Sensible analysis shows that the minimum wage encourages teenagers to drop out of high school and flip burgers. In addition, it also causes people that aren’t so poor to fall below the poverty line. Ed Morrissey has more information on why the minimum wage is evil:
The minimum-wage increases that enjoy such popularity among politicians generate much less enthusiasm among economists, and for good reason. It artificially inflates the cost of labor, especially in low-skill markets, which pushes employers to either reduce their labor through automation or scale back on staffing. The higher the cost of labor goes, the less competitive the lowest-skilled workers become. Those businesses that cannot absorb the costs will pass them along to their customers, raising the cost of living and eventually eliminating whatever transient increase in actual buying power the wage increase produced — which prompts politicians to raise the floor again and start the cycle over.
This is exactly correct. Unskilled workers need to be paid much less than skilled workers are if we are to encourage merit in our society. Small businesses loath the minimum wage risings, which inevitably sends them crashing down. It’s no secret that minimum wage increases cripple the amount of resources that could be used by companies, and it’s also no secret that lower wages encourage more output from the workers.
What the Kostards are missing (preferring to be blinded by hatred, instead) is that GM, Chrysler, and Ford all pay a ridiculous amount of wages to their employees. When you factor in health care costs, that comes up to be about $73 per hour! It’s utterly ridiculous to have such a large workforce be paid that much money, and that can be blamed for the present state of GM. Executive costs don’t even come close to that. These wages, of course, shouldn’t be blamed soley on the Big Three. Instead, we should also place much of the blame on the idiotic unions, such as the UAW, for lobbying the government to force the wage rises.
A system involving government and unions has brought the Big Three to its knees. Instead, they need to return to the principles of the free market, which would let the Big Three set their own wages, and also allow the Big Three to bust any unions that try to drag it down. The invisible hand of the markets would require that suppliers compete for each individual company, rather than be at the mercies of the unions. The invisible hand would also successfully dictate how much the government would pay its members. Without a cumbersome minimum wage requirement, the companies could spread wages in as many imaginative fashions as they’d like. This entrepreneurship in all facets of business structure would allow businesses to create the maximum amount of profit, raising or lowering the wage at will.
Kostards just refuse to admit that the corrupt, Mafioso unions are the ones that are to blame. Failing that, they take their rage out on Senator Corker, a moral paradigm that all Congressmen should heed. Senator Corker is right to strike down the savage unions, and the rest of the nation needs to learn that there is no such thing as a free lunch, especially if you don’t do anything other than work at an assembly line.
It’s high time that union workers realize that they are just like the rest of us. They don’t deserve special pay for the irrelevant tripe they indulge in, and they certainly don’t deserve to have a lockdown on American politics. Blagojevich, after all, was a union man, and his union activities got him indited for corruption.
High wages hurt the American economy, it hurts small businesses, and it hurts the poor. High wages drive up unemployment, increase taxes on all of us, and give poor people more lobbying power than they deserve.
I wish that I lived in Tennessee with you, OS. That way, I could vote in Bob Corker.
By: Pokey Minch on December 17, 2008
at 2:01 am
It is clear that these so called “workers” are nothing more that parasites feeding on the accomplishments of the automakers executives.
The executives are the ones that make the decisions that make the cars! Those decisions aint’t gonna get decided by themselves! This is why GW Bush is such an excellent president because he is the deciderer.
The violent unionists, communists and democrats are stabbing America with knives and scissors. Some day these people will get paid what they are worth. A sack of potatoes and one chicken per week!
By: Marty McPain on December 17, 2008
at 12:54 pm
When you factor in health care costs, that comes up to be about $73 per hour!
This is only true if you factor in pension pay and benefits before the 2007 UAW negotiations and then amortize them across all current employees. In other words, it’s not true at all. Indeed, if you compare current employee costs at UAW plants to foreign-owned plants’ employee costs, they’re within a couple dollars of one another.
Also, let us not forget the Treaty of Detroit, the first negotiated contract between the Big Three and the UAW, wherein the UAW said they would back the Big Three to go to D.C. and push for universal health care and national pension plans in order to cut their long-term costs. The Big Three refused. The executives of the 1950s did this to their companies, setting the stage for the absurd growth in benefit costs — benefits they agreed to pay and insisted on paying in this fashion and persisted in to this day. The unions, on the other hand, saw this coming.
Isn’t lying some kind of venial sin that requires you to shove nails in through your joints or something? Or maybe hit yourself with a two-by-four?
By: James F. Elliott on December 17, 2008
at 1:23 pm
“It’s high time that union workers realize that they are just like the rest of us. They don’t deserve special pay for the irrelevant tripe they indulge in, and they certainly don’t deserve to have a lockdown on American politics. Blagojevich, after all, was a union man, and his union activities got him indited for corruption.”
I’m at a loss to guess why Fitzgerald isn’t trying to prosecute the unions, other than that he’s a partisan Democrat, and a rabid liberal.
“High wages hurt the American economy, it hurts small businesses, and it hurts the poor. High wages drive up unemployment, increase taxes on all of us, and give poor people more lobbying power than they deserve.”
This is true. One cannot whine about unemployment, yet in the same breath state that raising the minimum wage is the best way to help with this. That goes against the laws of supply and demand.
“I wish that I lived in Tennessee with you, OS. That way, I could vote in Bob Corker.”
You are more useful in Virginia, Pokey. At Regent University, you have a boatload of resources at your command, and you’re also in a state and district that badly needs Republicans. The Real Virginia is being over run by the Communist Virginia, as both Senators are hardcore Democrats. You guys also just let a Democrat beat the incumbent Republican. You guys have a lot of work to do there.
“It is clear that these so called “workers” are nothing more that parasites feeding on the accomplishments of the automakers executives.”
If you could take them off of the UAW virus, they wouldn’t have diseases running through the pores of their skin.
“The executives are the ones that make the decisions that make the cars! Those decisions aint’t gonna get decided by themselves! This is why GW Bush is such an excellent president because he is the deciderer.”
That’s correct. The executives have been letting the unions make the decisions for them. The unions, having bought into the ridiculous concept of ‘limited oil’ (a rebuttal of which can be found here), are responsible for the terrible decisions Ford, GM, and Chrysler have made.
“The violent unionists, communists and democrats are stabbing America with knives and scissors. Some day these people will get paid what they are worth. A sack of potatoes and one chicken per week!”
Well, those in the three groups that you’ve listed should really be executed. As far as poor workers should go, they should be left at the mercy of the free market. If the free market is a merciful concept, it will allow the workers to buy TVs; if the market is vengeful, however, it will force workers to earn little more than the meat and potatoes. This is the only way we can keep our GDP high, and our economy strong.
“This is only true if you factor in pension pay and benefits before the 2007 UAW negotiations and then amortize them across all current employees. In other words, it’s not true at all. Indeed, if you compare current employee costs at UAW plants to foreign-owned plants’ employee costs, they’re within a couple dollars of one another.”
I don’t think that over half of the Big Three’s workforce has been hired since 2007, James. In fact, I would posit to say that only 15% of them have been, and that’s using generous percentages.
“Also, let us not forget the Treaty of Detroit, the first negotiated contract between the Big Three and the UAW, wherein the UAW said they would back the Big Three to go to D.C. and push for universal health care and national pension plans in order to cut their long-term costs. The Big Three refused.”
Well, of course they did. Universal health care, especially in a single-payer system (Obama’s is, admittedly, slightly better than this), is a lose-lose proposition. The workers will be taxed so high that they won’t be able to afford anything, while the automakers will be even more burdened by the tax, as it will obviously be a progressive one. Taxes are anathema to economic growth, and I don’t think that the workers and the automakers should have to pick up the slack because some fat 450 pound man keeps going into comas. Workers only support the proposition because they’re partisan; non-unionized workers are smart enough to see through that ploy.
“The executives of the 1950s did this to their companies, setting the stage for the absurd growth in benefit costs — benefits they agreed to pay and insisted on paying in this fashion and persisted in to this day.”
This is true. The executives should not have agreed to pay any of the costs.
“The unions, on the other hand, saw this coming.”
Since when have unions ever done anything other than spread corruption? Why is the story of Jimmy Hoffa forgotten so easily?
“Isn’t lying some kind of venial sin that requires you to shove nails in through your joints or something? Or maybe hit yourself with a two-by-four?”
Liars should be punished by execution, if they do not repent. That would include every Democrat, other than the Blue Dogs.
By: Objective Scrutator on December 18, 2008
at 2:42 am
I don’t think that over half of the Big Three’s workforce has been hired since 2007, James. In fact, I would posit to say that only 15% of them have been, and that’s using generous percentages.
Indeed, that proves my point: the “73 dollars” only comes in if you discuss pension costs for all those retired workers. The foreign-owned companies’ plants don’t have any yet.
Taxes are anathema to economic growth,
Tell it to Dwight Eisenhower and the 1950s. Idiot.
Liars should be punished by execution, if they do not repent.
I expect to read your suicide note by tonight.
By: James F. Elliott on December 19, 2008
at 1:10 pm
“Indeed, that proves my point: the “73 dollars” only comes in if you discuss pension costs for all those retired workers. The foreign-owned companies’ plants don’t have any yet.”
Well, they need to break those pension plans somehow. The union contracts are completely destroying the American automotive industry.
“Tell it to Dwight Eisenhower and the 1950s. Idiot.”
This is one of the stupidest statements I’ve ever heard. Over 30% of Ike’s term was spent in a recession, which is the greatest amount spent in a recession by any President since Ike. The GDP raised 2.5%, but this is largely attributed to that ‘military-industrial complex’ he so feared. Higher taxation rates mean less incentive to work; I thought that even hardcore liberals knew that.
If you want to open your mind, try reading this.
“I expect to read your suicide note by tonight.”
Were I wrong, God would smite me for slandering His name. Since He has not taken action, I can conclude that I am not lying.
By: Objective Scrutator on January 6, 2009
at 2:30 am