[JusticePete]

Being involved in the automotive aftermarket and working with a number of people from GM I have some very strong opinions about what is going on. There is no doubt that GM has created much of this mess. What bothers me is that the government does not even acknowledge their role in this. It is our government that has opened our markets to virtually everyone. We welcome foreign goods and foreign businesses into our country. The inverse is not true. Virtually every country we export to has regulation, tariffs and taxes that restrict our ability to sell USA made goods. We went even further on the state level. The Southern States that lost the furniture and textile business through lower wages and foreign government's subsides to their own manufacturers, waged a similar campaign in the USA. They offered huge tax incentive packages to the transplants and pitched the lack of unions (UAW in particular) as another tax advantage. These government policies have crippled more than the Big Three. Our governmental policies and tax structure have crippled manufacturing in the USA across the board.

We need more than bridge loans to the Big Three. We need true access to foreign markets and governmental policies that will level the playing field for the big Three in the USA. Toyota has a %1,200 to $1,500 per vehicle lower cost because of health care. We can blame the unions or we can be realistic. most of Toyota's R & D is done in Japan. In Japan those employees receive health care and retirement subsides as government policy while Toyota receives cash and other incentives from the Japanese government. At the end of the day we are talking about thousands of dollars per car.

Remember that the Asians got lucky. The Oil Embargo in the early 70s made the econo-boxes that the Asians were selling here viable product. It wasn't a corporate strategy the Asians were working. The econo-boxes were what the Asians could sell in their own market. The Oil Embargo launched them into the USA mainstream. Now if the USA had not given the Asians access to our open markets they would not be what they are today. In China, where the Asians out side of the Chinese suffer along with the same restrictions as American car companies, GM is doing exceptionally well and the Asians are struggling to compete with GM.

Email every elected representative you can and demand the government provide GM, Ford and Chrysler the ability to act as though they were in bankruptcy, that the government fund the required bridge loans and most important of all that the government reform our trade and tax policies so that working men and women have good paying and secure manufacturing sector jobs in the USA.


Sorry for the rant, but the signature got me started.

It just got worse.... Please contact your elected officials. Feel free to cut and paste what I have written. If you don't like mine, write your own.

Toyota's board reached the decision late today, Japan time, to halt the $1.3 billion project near Tupelo, Miss., "due to the steep decline" in the United States. Toyota has no timetable on resuming construction, spokeswoman Barbara McDaniel said.

Our government’s trade and tax policies are more at fault than the Big Three or any USA manufacturer for the erosion of Made in the USA products. The US market got tight, so Toyota cut and ran -- all the way back to Japan with USA JOBS and MONEY. They have no commitment to the USA. Their only interest is to export our wealth. Change our tax and trade policies so we can manufacture goods in the USA and sell them in free and open markets around the world. It is time for you as an elected official to CHANGE the course of our economy.

Fund bridge loans to the Big Three.
Allow the Big Three to exercise the same contractual rights available to them in bankruptcy under TARP like legislation.
Concurrently set the same types of deadlines for the US government to reform our Trade and Tax policies that have been suggested for the Big Three.