I have been watching this evolution of a $25 billion bail out since I first caught wind of it on Sept. 25 when it was reported by the San Francisco Chronicle.
http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2008/09/22/national/w131939D34.DTL&type=politics
Please go read it as it could have been worse and yes it is designed to get Obama votes.
Here is a small portion of it. Please read the entire article:
Also in line with a Senate vote expected Saturday is a $630 billion-plus spending bill funding the Pentagon, providing $25 billion in federal loans to automakers and $23 billion in help for victims of floods in the Midwest and Gulf Coast hurricanes.
The Reid-Byrd stimulus plan has been in the works for weeks as Democrats have kept promising an eventual vote on an economic stimulus bill to follow on the tax rebates sent out to most taxpayers earlier this year.
The next time I caught mention of the bill it was slimmed down some.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/83bfe68c-8a8f-11dd-a76a-0000779fd18c.html
Here is the truly interesting part that I bet the Voters it is designed to buy are not aware of. (once again read the whole article)
Shelly Lombard, analyst at Gimme Credit, a corporate bond research company, told clients this week that “blue collar workers are more sympathetic victims than ‘rich’ investment bankers. So it’s easier to defend loans designed to save close to 100,000 jobs in the shrinking US manufacturing industry.”
The go-ahead for the car industry loans has been written into a stop-gap spending bill, known as a continuing resolution, which must be passed to keep the federal government running beyond the end of the fiscal year on September 30. Congress and the White House have yet to agree on details of the fiscal 2009 budget.
The loans were originally authorised in an energy bill passed last December to finance the retooling of plants for more fuel-efficient vehicles, especially hybrid and electric cars. But they have become a crucial prop for Detroit carmakers.
The continuing resolution provides funding for $7.5bn, which is the estimated subsidy on the loans – in other words, the cost to the government of providing them at well below market rates.
The loans will not take effect until the energy department has written detailed regulations dealing with, among other issues, which investments will qualify and conditions for repayment. Congress has directed the department to begin writing the regulations quickly and will provide any extra staff required to do so. One lobbyist said he hoped the regulations would be completed by early 2009.
The last mention I have found is the following:
http://www.cqpolitics.com/wmspage.cfm?docID=news-000002960170&cpage=2
Please note this in the article.
Senate Republicans meanwhile celebrated their offshore-drilling victory.
This is the bate to get the drill baby drill people to vote Democrat. What the Democrats are hoping is Obama gets to the White House to put the ban back on.
It is a shell game.