December 16, 2008 5:36 AM

The "War on Christmas" may be a myth, but the "War on the Middle Class" is not

Late Thursday night, Republicans in the Senate derailed a bill, passed the day before by the House, to loan $15 billion to the Detroit Three. The Senate vote was 52 to 35, with 10 Republicans joining 40 Democrats and two Independents in favor. Sen. Bob Corker, R-TN, after the talks collapsed late Thursday said, "We are three words away," from a deal. Those words? Most likely, "United Auto Workers."

I'm normally loathe to agree with ANYTHING that oozes from Lou Dobbs' pie hole, but I'm going to borrow his "War on the Middle Class" meme for this rant. After watching the Senate Republican caucus channeling Herbert Hoover on Thursday night, it fits...and there's no need to acquit. If anyone needs any more evidence indicating why these fools no longer deserve to govern, it can be found in their poorly disguised hatred for the American working class.

In one of the most stunning displays of political hypocrisy perhaps in the entire history of the Republic, the party that during election seasons sells itself as the defender of middle-American values spent Thursday night pissing all over middle America. Instead of working to defend American jobs, a cabal of Conservative Southern Republicans saw an opportunity to strike a blow against organized labor.

Regardless of what any of y'all might think of Michael Moore, and I hardly think he's an effective poster boy for Liberal values, his analysis of what Senate Republicans tried to do to the UAW is spot on:

[T]he Senate said...we'll give you the loan only if the factory workers take a $20 an hour cut in wages, pension and health care. That's right. After giving BILLIONS to Wall Street hucksters and criminal investment bankers -- billions with no strings attached and, as we have since learned, no oversight whatsoever -- the Senate decided it is more important to break a union, more important to throw middle class wage earners into the ranks of the working poor than to prevent the total collapse of industrial America.

What I fail to understand is why and how Congress can allocate $700 BILLION in bailout money for financial firms...and yet $15 billion for the American auto industry is anathema to Senate Republicans? Yeah, we'll give you the money, but first you have to drop trou and grab your ankles...and where did I put that tube of Astroglide??

If it weren't for the damned United Auto Workers, our economy would be just fine....

In fairness, Joe Biden was attending to the Obama transition team and it's responsibilities, John Kerry was in Poland taking part in UN climate change discussions, and Lamar Alexander was home convalescing from recent surgery. So, the question, then, is for the other Senators who seemingly had no problems with bailing out Wall Street, but are willing to let the American auto industry (Motto: "We actually make things!") die on the vine.

(If I may digress for a moment, it was refreshing to see that at least one Senator, Jim Bunning, faced some retribution in Michigan for his efforts to kill off the American auto industry. Karma can be a real b---h, eh? Yes it can be.)

No wants to have to bail out the auto- or any other- industry, but the reality is that we are where we are. Having said that, though, it would seem that Senate Republicans are content with the idea of 3 million additional Americans collecting unemployment and a significant portion of our economy going dormant.

Somewhere, Herber Hoover is smiling....

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This page contains a single entry by Jack Cluth published on December 16, 2008 5:36 AM.

Today's signs that the Apocalypse is upon us was the previous entry in this blog.

Man, I could watch this all day long.... is the next entry in this blog.

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