Give me a break | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: Jim Bispo's weekly column appears in the Beaufort Observer.

    On Aug 10, 2012 I heard the Prez say the following on TV; "What we did with the auto industry we can do with manufacturing across America."

    It sounded like he was talking about this as though it was a good thing. A success. We can only wonder how stupid he believes the rest of us are or how many of us simply don't pay attention. as he misleads us about one thing after another.

    We have for a long time had bankruptcy laws that have served us well. They are understood and over time and usage they have worked. A bankruptcy judge oversees the process. That person will review and either accept or reject agreements between the company and its creditors, and settle disputes. That's his (or her) job. In essence the bankruptcy process holds creditors at bay while the company restructures its debt, reorganizes into a slimmer, trimmer, more efficient company and goes about its business. They stay in business all the while. Whatever they produce or whatever services they provide continue unabated. To mention a few, think Continental Airlines. United Airlines, American Airlines, They have all either been through bankruptcy or are currently in bankruptcy. Think Chrysler when Lee Iacocca guided them through bankruptcy in the 1980s.

    What the Anointed One and his henchmen did with the auto industry after leading a whole lot of the more gullible among us to believe that the company would go out of business if they went into bankruptcy, was redefine the bankruptcy process so that the unions were taken care of first. The secured bond holders who were normally "taken care of" first (first after the lawyers, most likely) were pushed back down the line and ended up with about 30¢ on the dollar. Normally, they would be expected to recover a lot more (if not all) of their investment. Taxpayer money was used to prop up Chrysler and GM by purchasing a ton of their stock at prices that have not been seen since. The government owned GM stock is currently selling for about half (or less) of what we paid for it. That is not normally the kind of a situation in which you want to find yourself after you purchase stock.

    In effect the Anointed One and his spear carriers reinvented the bankruptcy process so they could "take care" of their big supporters (Think UAW).

    And yet here is the Anointed One making it sound like a truly great achievement. It isn't. In fact it has turned out to be a really rotten deal for the long suffering taxpayers. And the Anointed One is telling us that we can do the same thing with manufacturing companies. I can hardly wait. NOT!!

    The Heritage Foundation Morning Bell in its 8/14/12 edition opined the following, "American taxpayers are unnecessarily on the hook for the gold plated retirement benefits of a few. Twisting bankruptcy law to benefit a politically influential special interest group isn't something to brag about." In case there is any doubt, the 'few" are the UAW folks who now own a fairly significant percentage of GM..

    They didn't use the reinvented bankruptcy laws for Solyndra (remember them??) That would have left their folks out in the cold. What they did was even more egregious. Even after some folks suggested that the company was getting shaky, they guaranteed a loan of about one half billion dollars, just before Solyndra went belly up. Had they taken the secured bond holders to the back of the line as they did at GM, some of the large contributors and bundlers would have suffered. Instead, the geniuses at EPA subordinated the taxpayers' loan to the private equity holders (who just happened to be big time Dem fund raisers/bundlers) even though there are statutes on the books that prohibit that. Isn't that interesting?? The Anointed One's fund raisers were placed ahead of the taxpayers. So who cares as long as you can get away with it?? We long suffering taxpayers should care, and some of us do, but not nearly enough of us... Yet....

    The man has shown time and again that he seems to have absolutely no regard for the American public (despite the almost continuous protestations that he is looking out for the great middle class). We need to do something about that this coming November while we still have a chance of recovering. Otherwise.... God help us..

    D'ya think