So what do the folks actually footing the bill for Obama's indulgence of his megalomania and the obscene payback to his union supporters think about pouring more money down the black hole ? The latest polls don't print a pretty picture:
Only 21% of voters nationwide support a plan for the government to bail out General Motors as part of a structured bankruptcy plan to keep the troubled auto giant in business.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey finds that 67% are opposed to a plan that would provide GM with $50 billion in funding and give the government a 70% ownership interest in the company.
Even when presented with the stark choice between providing government funding or letting GM go out of business, only 32% of voters support the bailout. Most voters (56%) say it would be better to let GM go out of business.
Even more eye-opening are some ancillary questions:
Looking back at the bailout funding already provided, 60% say the auto bailouts were a bad idea. Two-out-of-three believe that most of the bailout money is going to those who caused the economic crisis.
Only 18% say the federal government will do a good job running GM. But they suspect the government will do all it can to help its investment. After taking ownership of GM and Chrysler, 57% expect the government will pass laws and regulations giving those companies unfair advantages over others.
Looks like the little people have their eyes wide open on this one.
Update: One final laugh - read What I Learned as a Car Czar by Romanian Lt. Gen. Ion Pacepa. One of the better passages:
The Trabant originally derived from a well regarded West German car (the DKW) made by Audi, which today produces some of the most prestigious cars in the world. In the hands of the East German government, the unfortunate DKW became a farce of a car. The bureaucrats and the union that ran the Trabant factory made the car smaller and boxier, to give it a more proletarian look. To reduce production costs, they cut down on the size of the original, already small DKW engine, and they replaced the metal body with one made of plastic-covered cardboard. What rolled off the assembly line was a kind of horseless carriage that roared like a lawn mower and polluted the air worse than a whole city block full of big Western cars.
After German reunification, the plucky little "Trabi" that East Germans used to wait 10 years to buy became an embarrassment, and its production was stopped. Germany's junkyards are now piled high with Trabants, which cannot be recycled because burning their plastic-covered cardboard bodies would release poisonous dioxins. German scientists are now trying to develop a bacterium to devour the cardboard-and-plastic body.
Plastic-covered cardboard sounds about right for Barry and his pals.
