Automakers Spent the Last 20 Years As Quid Pro Quo Partners to GOP Blagojevichs in Congress

This time they didn't get what they wanted from their 'guvners' in the Senate, and somehow, even if quid pro quo is illegal you'd almost think that the quid without the quo should be liable for civil legal action, wouldn't you?

But the LA Times summarizes that "Since 1990, the auto industry has cut $100 million in checks to the GOP, compared with $34 million to Democrats. But the Big Three is snubbed on bailout" in their report "Automakers fail to cash in on big GOP donations "

Excerpt:

GM, the only carmaker that could be reached for comment, downplayed the role that money may have played in the current debate.

"It's highly doubtful that political giving ever played a factor in an individual member's position," GM spokesman Greg Martin said.

But on Capitol Hill, the cold calculus of money is never too far from any issue.

A study released Thursday by the Center for Responsive Politics suggested that in the House of Representatives, where the bailout passed this week, there was a direct correlation between votes and campaign cash: Those who voted in favor of the plan received, on average, 8% more money from the auto industry than those who did not.

In the Senate, other forces may have been at play.

Some of the loudest opponents to helping Detroit were senators whose states are home to car factories of foreign brands, including Sen. Richard C. Shelby (D-Ala.), who has Mercedes, Hyundai and Honda plants in his state but no Big Three facilities.

At the eleventh hour, Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) put forth a bill that sought to wrest new concessions from the United Auto Workers as well as from corporate bondholders. He has received $234,860 from the auto industry throughout his career, but Tennessee is also home to several Nissan plants and the Japanese automaker's U.S. headquarters.

I guess the only revenge the Big Three and those who supply them will be able to get for the diss when Senate Republicans threw them to the lions on December 11, 2008 is to remember this in the future and donate more appropriately.  

But the rest of us should know from other reports that have come down in the past that there was plenty of 'pro quo' in earlier years. 

The GOP stood off lower CAFE standards for decades for American car producers.

And in the 2003 tax cut passed mostly on the backs of Republicans a provision for businesses to take up to $100k off SUVs and trucks.  IIRC the stipulation was that the vehicle had to be used for business for over half the mileage, but that's easily acheived even for 2 cars in the business car type families.

I work in a few exclusive neighborhoods.  In a couple of them a large percentage of the people seemed to keep driving huge SUVs which were getting obviously out of date, especially with the high fuel prices.  It was the funniest thing to see them toodling around in huge ugly SUVs from 2003-2004.  I talked to an accountant last year I knew and he agreed they were working off that depreciation from vehicles bought for the company car people after the 2003 tax cut.

But, not only did these families pay more for gas because of the Republican tax cuts that included such behemoths, but you and I paid more for gas because the number of these vehicles that were almost free to  them and their employees.

And, in the end, because Detroit didn't have to evolve since Congress mandated that a large number of their SUV specials would be sold for up to $100k with the government, in the end, picking up  the tab, Congress and more specifically the Republicans who pushed the tax cuts through needs to share a major portion of the blame for the condition of the big three.  And now we learn the Congressional Republicans did it because they were raking in dough from the Motor City businesses.

Indeed, what I've heard over the last few days is that, no matter what the tut tutting we are hearing from Republicans, Governor Blagojevich wasn't that much different in his standard operating procedures than a lot of other politicians.  He was stupid for making his demands explicit.  If you couch your actions in purity and use the church as a stepping stool, you can play the quid pro quo game all you want without getting caught.

It is pretty disgusting, though, to have the Republicans in Congress puritanically looking down their noses at the big three when they were Detroit's enablers, but even more so when they blame the unions, the workers, for the problems.  

tags: republicans  congress  auto industry  quid pro quo  blagojevich  detroit  

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