The New Deal Era & Now, Part Two
U.S. automakers have been struggling for the past number of years to remain profitable, but the economic downturn has put them flat on their backs.*** The automakers were literally losing millions of dollars each day!!! In September, 2008; that is, under the previous Congress and the Bush Administration, 25 billion dollars were authorized as loans to the three main American automakers; Ford, Chrysler and General Motors, for retooling to produce more energy efficient vehicles. This money was included as part of a major bill of more than 600 billion dollars, funding many aspects of government operations, and, therefore, there was not a separate vote on the auto loans.
Then in the middle of December 2008, Bush Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson loaned several billion dollars to both General Motors and Chrysler, to prevent them from going bankrupt. In all, General Motors, along with its finance arm, GMAC, has received over 63 billion dollars. Chrysler, along with its finance arm, Chrysler Finance Service, has received more than 16 billion dollars. (These figures from "Propublica.org") These funds came from the 700 billion amount voted on for banks previously, so again, there was no separate vote on this money. While Ford hasn't received any of the money (only the "retooling loan" money), they, too, have been losing billions, but in the last few months, they have been losing at a lower rate than GM and Chrysler. Recently, Wall Street cheered when analysts predicted that Ford would report a 10 billion dollar loss, and they actually "only" lost 9 billion. Don't pop the champagne corks yet! And I'll come back to the auto companies again shortly.
Enter the Obama Administration, January 20, 2009 (The new 111th Congress took office earlier in January, with both houses controlled by Democrats.):
Congress passes what most Americans know as the "economic stimulus bill." It provides 787 billion dollars (that's "billion," with a "B") for a wide variety of projects over a two year period. Some economists say it was not enough, while others say it was too much. There were two separate bills passed, one by the House and a slightly different version by the Senate (not an unusual situation). Then a conference committee, with members from both the House and the Senate and members from both parties, presented a new "compromise" bill for a final vote in both houses. The bill passed and was signed by President Obama in February. The final vote totals were:
House-246 FOR (all Democrats)-183 AGAINST (7 Democrats and 176 Republicans)
Senate-60 FOR (56 Democrats-2 Republicans-2 Independents)-38 AGAINST (All Republicans)
To be continued... (A word history is below the note)
***It should be noted that "foreign owned" automakers in the U.S. market have also experienced significant drops in sales during this downturn. Initially, the American companies took the major hits, prompting some commentators on CNBC (a cable business channel, owned by NBC) to proclaim that this problem in the auto industry was an American problem, and that the American companies should be allowed to file bankruptcy or liquidate. When other commentators asked if America wanted to still have American auto companies, the answer from the previous groups was, "We'll still have American auto companies; they're called 'Toyota' and 'Honda.' " The above is not a true word for word exchange, but rather a summary of things that were said.
Word History:
Switch-verb form-This was derived from the noun. See Part One of the above article for the noun's history at this link: http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2009/06/new-deal-era-now-part-one.html
During the 1600s, the verb meant "to beat with a switch;" that is, beat with a riding whip or thin flexible twig. You don't hear this meaning used much anymore, but when I was a kid, it was not uncommon to hear another kid say, "I got switched last night!" Let me tell you, they didn't mean they got switched at the hospital either, but rather....YEOW!!! Further, the noun meanings transferred to the verb. I guess you could say they were "switched." Okay, back to the word. The noun also gave the meaning "to switch something on or off," or "to divert a train from one track to another." The notion of "swapping" didn't come about until the latter part of the 1800s.
Then in the middle of December 2008, Bush Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson loaned several billion dollars to both General Motors and Chrysler, to prevent them from going bankrupt. In all, General Motors, along with its finance arm, GMAC, has received over 63 billion dollars. Chrysler, along with its finance arm, Chrysler Finance Service, has received more than 16 billion dollars. (These figures from "Propublica.org") These funds came from the 700 billion amount voted on for banks previously, so again, there was no separate vote on this money. While Ford hasn't received any of the money (only the "retooling loan" money), they, too, have been losing billions, but in the last few months, they have been losing at a lower rate than GM and Chrysler. Recently, Wall Street cheered when analysts predicted that Ford would report a 10 billion dollar loss, and they actually "only" lost 9 billion. Don't pop the champagne corks yet! And I'll come back to the auto companies again shortly.
Enter the Obama Administration, January 20, 2009 (The new 111th Congress took office earlier in January, with both houses controlled by Democrats.):
Congress passes what most Americans know as the "economic stimulus bill." It provides 787 billion dollars (that's "billion," with a "B") for a wide variety of projects over a two year period. Some economists say it was not enough, while others say it was too much. There were two separate bills passed, one by the House and a slightly different version by the Senate (not an unusual situation). Then a conference committee, with members from both the House and the Senate and members from both parties, presented a new "compromise" bill for a final vote in both houses. The bill passed and was signed by President Obama in February. The final vote totals were:
House-246 FOR (all Democrats)-183 AGAINST (7 Democrats and 176 Republicans)
Senate-60 FOR (56 Democrats-2 Republicans-2 Independents)-38 AGAINST (All Republicans)
To be continued... (A word history is below the note)
***It should be noted that "foreign owned" automakers in the U.S. market have also experienced significant drops in sales during this downturn. Initially, the American companies took the major hits, prompting some commentators on CNBC (a cable business channel, owned by NBC) to proclaim that this problem in the auto industry was an American problem, and that the American companies should be allowed to file bankruptcy or liquidate. When other commentators asked if America wanted to still have American auto companies, the answer from the previous groups was, "We'll still have American auto companies; they're called 'Toyota' and 'Honda.' " The above is not a true word for word exchange, but rather a summary of things that were said.
Word History:
Switch-verb form-This was derived from the noun. See Part One of the above article for the noun's history at this link: http://pontificating-randy.blogspot.com/2009/06/new-deal-era-now-part-one.html
During the 1600s, the verb meant "to beat with a switch;" that is, beat with a riding whip or thin flexible twig. You don't hear this meaning used much anymore, but when I was a kid, it was not uncommon to hear another kid say, "I got switched last night!" Let me tell you, they didn't mean they got switched at the hospital either, but rather....YEOW!!! Further, the noun meanings transferred to the verb. I guess you could say they were "switched." Okay, back to the word. The noun also gave the meaning "to switch something on or off," or "to divert a train from one track to another." The notion of "swapping" didn't come about until the latter part of the 1800s.
Labels: English, etymology, Germanic languages, Obama Administration, stimulus package, the Great Depression, the New Deal, unemployment
posted by Randy at 12:39 PM
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