November 11, 2008
Can the auto industry borrow AIG's lobbyist?
BY ROCHELLE RILEY FREE PRESS COLUMNIST
WASHINGTON -- No governor could have gotten a tougher crisis to handle than Gov. Jennifer Granholm has.
The governors of Louisiana and Florida, where hurricanes have devastated the economy and lives, would disagree.
But if the American auto industry fails -- and many people amazingly still don’t believe it’s possible -- IT WOULD BE AN UNNATURAL DISASTER OF DEVASTATING AND INSURMOUNTABLE NATIONAL PROPORTIONS. (Yes, I’m screaming that part.) And the governor can’t seem to convince people of the urgency.
So this emergency couldn’t have happened to a nicer governor. And right now, Michigan doesn’t need nice: We need tough.
President-elect Barack Obama gets the urgency. He urged President George W. Bush Monday to support immediate emergency aid for the auto industry. Ironically, his request came on the same day that the government announced it would purchase American International Group (AIG) stock to relieve strain on AIG, which has received about $143 billion in aid since September -- without strings attached, without constant begging, without promises.
But before it will help the auto industry, the administration wants to demand that failing companies do something they were unable to do when they were healthier. Oh, and the president wants to tie auto aid to a free-trade agreement with Colombia.
It isn’t fair. And Michigan needs to borrow AIG's lobbyist, the one who convinced the administration to write near blank checks to the insurance company.
Granholm is positioned to help; she’s the only governor on Obama’s economic panel of advisers. And she’s there, a close adviser to Obama affirmed Sunday, because Obama wants her to counsel him on the unique woes of the state with the nation’s highest unemployment rate.
“It was really important to him to have the governor from the state that is the hardest hit by the economy sitting at the table,” Valerie Jarrett, a cochair of his transition team said during an interview. Granholm “is taking a beating, as is her state, and so it’s so important that he have her counsel and advice.”
But a day later, when the governor got her first postelection chance to make a national case for auto aid, it, uh, didn’t go too well.
The difference between what she told the “Today” show’s Matt Lauer and what she should have told Lauer was vast:
When Lauer asked why Americans should give money to the auto industry, she reminded him that it was a loan.
She should have reminded him that it was a loan, then query why it was easier to throw money at financial and mortgage crises caused by greed.
When Lauer asked why America should help an industry that has nearly bankrupted itself because of too-high union costs and unpopular car designs, she said the industry had negotiated a new contract with the United Auto Workers that is full of sacrifice -- and that people just aren’t buying cars.
She should have said that there was little public support for the $700-billion congressional bailout bill, but Congress bailed first and made plans to deal later with the greed that led to the sub-prime mortgage disaster.
When Lauer asked why Americans should believe the auto industry wouldn’t be back to ask for more money, she said no one wants that.
What she should have said was that if the auto industry fails and at least 3 million people lose their jobs, the mortgage and insurance industries will be back again as foreclosures shoot through the roof.
Obama is right to ensure that Michigan is a part of every discussion about the nation’s economic crisis. Michigan has not diversified its economy enough to replace the jobs that would be lost by an industry meltdown.
And he’s right that the auto industry needs to do what it hasn’t: improve fuel efficiency.
But making the auto companies write 100 times on the board “I will do better” while the classroom is burning down makes no sense.
So either the governor needs to ramp up her anger and lobbying skills, or she can counsel Obama while the state's new lobbyist makes America understand that the auto crisis is as real as those in the banking and insurance industries.
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