Gary Peters, a highly ambitious, newly elected congressman from a swing district in Oakland County, sent me one with the headline, CONGRESSMAN TO JOIN DR.ED MONTGOMERY AT MEETING IN WARREN. Be still, my beating heart.
When he gets there, the freshman Democrat plans to take part in a mass panel which will advise the czar, quote, “on ways the federal government can alleviate the impact auto industry restructuring will have on workers, business and communities.”
I’ll bet this will all come as a great revelation to Dr. Montgomery. After all, he is only a brilliant scholar who has been a Deputy Secretary of Labor, and an economics professor at Michigan State. If you think I am being a trifle sarcastic, you are right. He knows a great deal about what’s happening in the industry, and to Michigan.
Naturally, this didn’t stop every single member of our congressional delegation from signing a mass letter, telling Dr. Ed they “wanted to share with you those areas we feel are of immediate importance to our state,” and then suggesting he get the government to launch close to twenty massive federal spending programs.
Here’s a sample: “Please call Transportation Secretary (Ray) LaHood to urge him that Michigan gets its maximum allowed ($300 million) in discretionary spending.” I am sure he’ll tell them, “Hey, no problem. I’m on it. The feds have lots of dough. No deficit here.”
Meanwhile, the state’s remaining newspapers gave him a further round of orders and requests. If this were India, I think we’d all show up wearing dhotis and holding begging bowls.
Here’s something to keep in mind. Montgomery is NOT an auto czar. His actual title is, Director of Recovery for Auto Communities and Workers. Think of that scene in Gone With the Wind where one weary old doctor without enough medicine is trying to cope with thousands of wounded and sick soldiers.
Montgomery is bringing us a little something: $10.3 million dollars in Brownfield Grants designed to create jobs and, he says, revitalize communities. The Small Business Administration is also expanding its loan program, which could help some dealerships, repair shops and parts suppliers.
But there is no magic bullet. Here’s an idea, however: Pork.
Carl Levin is now chairman of the Senate Armed Services Committee and one of the most powerful men in Congress. So, why can’t we get some more Pentagon spending in Michigan? I was down in South Carolina a few years ago and Strom Thurmond had directed billions there. So -- why can’t we use some of our excess factory capacity to make tanks and trucks and airplanes? Revive the old Arsenal of Democracy. Worked quite well during World War II, which, come to think of it, was the last war we really won.
So the ball’s in your court, Senator:
Tell us why that’s a bad idea.
The entire Michigan congressional crew is impotent and is in part the reason why our state is now a 3rd world venue..
Michigan's congressional clout has been worthless for many years. It has always amazed me how the media and others in the region have micro managemented the antics of Detroit's CC and leaders while giving a pass to the impotency of our congresssional leaders unless of course Jack and others wanted to demonize Carolyn Kilpatrick or ridicule John Conyers or waste ink of his travel agenda ..
When this region's media needs a surge the usual suspects are Black folks shortcomings, Detroit issues or attacks on the Black leaders..
Sen.Levin and company have been useless institutions for decades.. Sen.Levin of course thinks he has a divine entitlement to his office..
So sad..
Posted by: Thrasher | May 08, 2009 at 02:09 PM
Here's a great story, from another state with a bloated-budget problem caused in no small part by the demands (and power) of its public-sector employees' unions.
In California, the state government sought to trim state-funded spending on home health care; to do that, they cut the wages of some home health care workers from about $12.10 an hour to about $10.10 an hour. The wage cuts were the product of some very tough negotiations between Republicans and Democrats in the state legislature. having reached a compormise at the eleventh hour, the budget was signed by Gov. Schwazenegger.
Now, the Service Employees International Union (SEIU) wants the Obama Administration to withhold more than $6 billion in federal stimulus monies headed for California, unless those negotiated wage cuts are undone. It appears that Obama, having been supported by the SEIU, is going to do what the SEIU wants. So much for legislative negotiation, and elected representatives doing the hard work of making hard budgetary decisions, eh, Jack?
The LA Times reports the story here:
http://www.latimes.com/news/local/la-me-health-cuts8-2009may08,0,4592200.story
I laughed this morning when a story on Dr. Montgomery was reported by former Detroiter Don Gonyea on NPR' Morning Edition. Touring an injection molding plant in Grand Rapids, the company's CEO asked Dr. Montgomery if he knew what injection molding was. "Sure," Dr. Montgomery answered. Standing in front of a real live injection molding machine, the CEO asked Dr. Montgomery if he knew how injection molding worked. "Well, no," Dr. Montgomery stated. (Wisely stepping back from any pretense of expertise in the presence of someone who had real expertise and was seemingly prepared, on the spot to demonstrate that expertise.)
You just gotta love Dr. Montgomery's title, and I am so grateful to Jack Lessenberry from saving me the trouble to look it up after not quite believing it after I first heard it mentioned this morning: "Director of Recovery for Auto Communities and Workers." Nothing about industrial recovery. Nothing about automaker profitability. Instead: "Auto Communities and Workers." And so we have it; a GM, financed by the federal government, run by and for the UAW.
I suspect that someday, as it always does, the market will sort all of this out.
Posted by: Anonymous | May 08, 2009 at 02:49 PM
How many Friedmanites did it take to screw in a lightbulb?
They're still sitting in the dark waiting for the free market to take care of the problem.
Posted by: Any Salyer | May 13, 2009 at 01:05 PM