12:35 am
Death Knell?
It’s official:
The Senate on Thursday night abandoned efforts to fashion a government rescue of the American automobile industry, as Senate Republicans refused to support a bill endorsed by the White House and Congressional Democrats.
The failure to reach agreement on Capitol Hill raised a specter of financial collapse for General Motors and Chrysler, which some experts say may not be able to survive until the end of the year.
After Senate Republicans balked at supporting a $14 billion auto rescue plan approved by the House on Wednesday, negotiators worked late into Thursday evening to broker a compromise but they deadlocked over Republican demands for steep cuts in pay and benefits by the United Automobile Workers union in 2009.
The failure in Congress to provide a financial lifeline for G.M. and Chrysler was a bruising defeat for President Bush in the waning weeks of his term, and also for President-elect Barack Obama, who earlier on Thursday urged Congress to act to avoid a further loss of jobs in an already deeply debilitated economy.
“It’s over with,” the Senate majority leader, Harry Reid of Nevada, said on the Senate floor, after it was clear that a deal could not be reached. “I dread looking at Wall Street tomorrow. It’s not going to be a pleasant sight.”
Mr. Reid added: “This is going to be a very, very bad Christmas for a lot of people as a result of what takes place here tonight.”
What really pisses me off is that it was a filibuster. The cloture vote was 52-35, which means the bill would have passed had there been a straight up or down vote.
Back when I was working to defeat the Bolton nomination, “up or down vote” was the Republican mantra. Now, when it really matters, when we’re talking not about appointing an angry troglodyte but rather SAVING THE FREAKING MANUFACTURING SECTOR, these morons could care less about hundreds of thousands of workers.
The giant sucking sound you hear is the Midwest going down the drain.