a vindictive bailout

You have to love the de facto Bush Administration. Even when doing something I basically agree with, given the current shaky state of the economy - providing $17 billion in loans to tide GM and Chrysler over until a new Congress and sane President take office - they manage to insert a nasty, vindictive, partisan element into it.

In this case, it is requiring the deep cuts in union wages and benefits. The corporate restructuring doesn't bother me - clearly that is needed. But GM and Chrysler are in this position largely because they failed to adapt to changing markets - they kept churning out SUVs and minivans without innovating and find themselves falling behind foreign car makers. But it wasn't the unions who made those poor decisions, was it? Nope.

No, this is simply a nice "fuck you" to the UAW for their support for Democratic candidates over the years. I'm guessing this deal, which is like giving a man dying of thirst a big glass of water but pissing in it first right before handing over the glass, won't make the UAW any more well disposed to the Republican Party.

Well, it may change anyway, since the Democrats don't seem to care for that.