PICKET: Robbing Ford to pay GM

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By Kerry Picket

COMMENTARY

When President Obama said that General Motors and Chrysler would emerge leaner and meaner the emphasis should have been on the latter. President Obama's campaign style sloganeering may have been effective with his supporters during the 2008 presidential campaign but fails to give much inspiration to the financially desperate auto-industry among others.

In this video clip, Kilroy Media applies the old saying of robbing from Peter to pay Paul to show how the Obama administration is choosing winners and losers during a weak economy. In this instance, Ford Motor Company, unlike their competitor GM, refused bailout money back in December.

Bill Ford Jr., Executive Chairman of the company that bears his family name told the Associated Press, "I think if they see Ford as a company trying to pull itself up by its own bootstraps, and making it on its own and pulling the right levers, I think that could be a positive for us." Ford had already been restructuring the company since 2005 through factory closings and 50,000 eliminated jobs (many through buyout and early retirement offers.)

Unfortunately, Ford's actions did not mean a pat on the head by the Obama administration. The act of being well prepared for tough times, means Ford gets the short end of the stick. Through taxpayer subsidies, which includes money from Ford, the more responsible auto company ends up paying for GM, who is on the brink of bankruptcy and has 19.4 billion dollars of taxpayer money to date. This is how "hope and change" becomes hateful. It will profess to become leaner and meaner.