Big Three Automakers Want National Health Care
November 14, 2006
BEGIN TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: (story) "From the rising cost of retiree health care to the advantages a weak yen gives the Japanese, the heads of the Big Three U.S. automakers will press for more recognition for their issues when they finally take their seats at the White House today across from President George Bush. Recognition is something industry executives say has been lacking from the president. They'll also attempt to draw distinctions between themselves and the foreign automakers whose U.S. branches generate record profits. But they will make clear that they are not looking for a bailout." Well, I don't know. When you hear the rest of this you may have to redefine bailout.
The General Motors Vice Chairman Bob Lutz said the meeting should, "enhance the president's understanding of the importance of the domestic auto industry to the economic health of the United States."
"Ford CEO Alan Mulally has said of the meeting with Bush: What I'm looking forward to is just sharing with him the state of our industry and also talking about competitiveness going forward.' All sides expect no firm commitments from the scheduled 45-minute session, which will include Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson."
The Washington Post version of this story has these guys then talking to the Democrats. "Allies of the American auto industry, brought to power in last week's elections, are set to challenge the Bush administration to level the playing field for U.S. manufacturers. ... An administration official said there had not been evidence of Japanese intervention in currency markets since March 2004. There is zero correlation between the yen's strength and Detroit's slide in profitability and U.S. market share, said the official, who spoke on condition of anonymity because he isn't authorized to speak publicly on those issues. ... In the past year, Detroit automakers have steadily tried to raise alarms in Washington about the industry's deterioration. They have been calling for more federal incentives to increase the number of alternative-fuel stations, the cutting of tariffs on steel imports, and government initiatives to curb the escalating cost of health care."
Now, what do you think that means? Curb the escalating cost of health care, government initiatives to curb the escalating -- let me tell you something. This is the only reason that they are meeting up there, and I'm going to make a prediction. The Democrats are all over the board now. Hillary got it started; other Democrats are picking it up. They want the government to negotiate prices for drugs for Medicare recipients. That essentially is price controls. That is government control. That is socialized medicine. It's one of the planks of it, anyway, one of the legs of the stool that need to be built in order for there to be a full-fledged government-run health care system.
I would bet you, and I don't know this. I'm just going to roll the dice. I would bet you that the big three automakers would be all for nationalized health care to eliminate their burden. This article states that health care costs are anywhere between 900 and $1500 per car to cover the health care of every employee, plus they pay people that are not working for them anymore. They cover their health care, they cover their pensions. I mean, they're paying people who are no longer productive. They made the deals to do it but now... I won't be surprised if before all this is said and done, the big three automakers, because they say that that's one of the big competitive problems they have with the Japanese. The Japanese government pays health care for all of its citizens. The auto companies do not have to therefore build that into the price of their cars so they can build cheaper cars, and sometimes significantly so. It's just a matter of who's going to be paying whose profit and loss sheet gets impacted by this, the federal government's or the automakers.
The story refers to these great capitalists, these automaker guys heading up to Washington, and I know what they want. What they want is national health care. They want national health care so they can off-load their massive health care contracts on to you and me and other taxpayers. They want pension legislation that will off-load their lucrative employee pensions on to the taxpayers. This is what they want, folks. Make no mistake about it. You can sit there and pooh-pooh it and you can say, "There goes Limbaugh again, doesn't know what he's talking about." But I do in this case.
Mr. Snerdley has just asked me if the costs for all the pensions they have to pay and all the health care they have to pay is the reason for their competitive disadvantage right now. Is that the reason that the big three automakers are lagging behind Toyota and other Japanese manufacturers? I don't know, Mr. Snerdley. I've never been in the auto business, and as such, I don't think I have the right to comment on that point.
END TRANSCRIPT
Read the Background Material...
(USA today: Carmakers seek more attention from Bush)
(Washington Post: Democrats Set to Press US Automakers' Case)
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