In Big 3 auto crisis, Moore has the best plan

Yesterday, the executives of the "Big 3" Detroit automakers returned to Capitol Hill on bended knee begging for money. On Thursday, they had pleaded with the Senate. On Friday, it was the House.

These executives have nothing to lose, really. Unlike so many of their workers who have lost their livelihoods and now are struggling to feed their families, these rich white guys with their obscene salaries are set for life financially. The only thing really at stake for them is their standing at the country club.

So I admit that it is kind of gratifying to watch them squirm. After all, these are the fat cats whose greed trumped any kind of responsibility to the environment or the workers. If Detroit had taken Japan's lead a decade ago and had started building better and more fuel-efficient vehicles, they might have avoided this crisis.

But that is water under the proverbial bridge.

Now MSNBC is reporting that "congressional Democrats and the White House reached for agreement Friday on about $15 billion in bailout loans for the beleaguered auto industry."

The House is scheduled to vote on it next week, and the Senate will also be working on the issue.

I am sure that our members of Congress have put a lot of thought into this issue, and I'm sure they will continue to do so until a would-be solution is passed. In the meantime, though, they would do well to consider a plan proposed earlier this week by filmmaker Michael Moore.

I know that most on the right do not take Moore seriously, and many on the left also are quick to dismiss him because of his sometimes over-the-top style. But if you are one of those "Moore skeptics", please leave his image out of your mind right now and just read and consider his words. He makes more sense than any politician I've heard on the issue.

Here is an excerpt. Use the link at the end of this post to read Moore's full plan.

Let me just state the obvious: Every single dollar Congress gives these three companies will be flushed right down the toilet. There is nothing the management teams of the Big 3 are going to do to convince people to go out during a recession and buy their big, gas-guzzling, inferior products. Just forget it. And, as sure as I am that the Ford family-owned Detroit Lions are not going to the Super Bowl -- ever -- I can guarantee you, after they burn through this $34 billion, they'll be back for another $34 billion next summer.

So what to do? Members of Congress, here's what I propose:

1. Transporting Americans is and should be one of the most important functions our government must address. And because we are facing a massive economic, energy and environmental crisis, the new president and Congress must do what Franklin Roosevelt did when he was faced with a crisis (and ordered the auto industry to stop building cars and instead build tanks and planes): The Big 3 are, from this point forward, to build only cars that are not primarily dependent on oil and, more importantly to build trains, buses, subways and light rail (a corresponding public works project across the country will build the rail lines and tracks). This will not only save jobs, but create millions of new ones.

2. You could buy ALL the common shares of stock in General Motors for less than $3 billion. Why should we give GM $18 billion or $25 billion or anything? Take the money and buy the company! (You're going to demand collateral anyway if you give them the "loan," and because we know they will default on that loan, you're going to own the company in the end as it is. So why wait? Just buy them out now.)

3. None of us want government officials running a car company, but there are some very smart transportation geniuses who could be hired to do this. We need a Marshall Plan to switch us off oil-dependent vehicles and get us into the 21st century.

This proposal is not radical or rocket science. It just takes one of the smartest people ever to run for the presidency to pull it off. What I'm proposing has worked before. The national rail system was in shambles in the '70s. The government took it over. A decade later it was turning a profit, so the government returned it to private/public hands, and got a couple billion dollars put back in the treasury.

This proposal will save our industrial infrastructure -- and millions of jobs. More importantly, it will create millions more. It literally could pull us out of this recession.

Amen.

>> Read Moore's full statement.