{"id":31729,"date":"2009-02-18T01:01:01","date_gmt":"2011-05-19T02:45:11","guid":{"rendered":""},"modified":"2011-05-19T02:45:11","modified_gmt":"2011-05-19T02:45:11","slug":"automakers_must_regain_swagger_and_sell_cars_that_americans_want","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2009\/02\/18\/automakers_must_regain_swagger_and_sell_cars_that_americans_want\/","title":{"rendered":"Automakers Must Regain Swagger and Sell Cars That Americans Want"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

RUSH: The automobile companies are next in line with their hands out. General Motors and Chrysler are asking for, what is it, the number being bandied about is $16 billion for General Motors, but I\u2019ve seen a total of 30 mentioned elsewhere. Let me find it here in the Stack. Yeah, GM needs up to $30 billion. Yes, and, by the way, we\u2019ve got official news, both Obama and the Congress are calling for a second stimulus package. I\u2019ll have the details in just a second. First I want to tell you about the automobile dealers. ‘General Motors Corp said on Tuesday it could need a total of up to $30 billion in US government aid — more than doubling its original aid — and would run out of cash as soon as March without new federal funding.\u2019 Now, GM and Chrysler, back in the fall, said they would run out of cash when, if they didn\u2019t get the first bailout? January or something like that? My point is, regardless how much money they\u2019re given, at some point they\u2019re going to run out. The focal point here is that people need to buy cars. If General Motors, Ford, Chrysler, if they\u2019re going to rebound, people need to buy their cars. <\/p>\n

‘The request for additional aid from the top US automaker came in a restructuring plan GM submitted to US officials on Tuesday. The GM restructuring plan of more than 100 pages was posted on the US Treasury website.\u2019 Now, here\u2019s the dilemma about this. The first thing you have to understand, these automobile dealers are located in Michigan. There are no jobs in Michigan. So here\u2019s the question. Do we the taxpayers bail out the auto companies, which is essentially bailing out the unions, I mean when you strip it down to bare facts, we are talking about bailing out employees, or not bailing out employees. If we bail out the car companies, the theory is that at least their people will be employed in the state of Michigan, where there are no jobs. And then General Motors and Chrysler can go about continuing to try to make cars that people want to buy, theoretically. Or, we don\u2019t bail \u2019em out and they run out of money and they have to file Chapter 11 or just plain go out of business, at which case all the autoworkers are unemployed and you know what will happen then. We will subsidize their unemployment with unemployment benefits. <\/p>\n

Now, we will not subsidize their unemployment at their current salaries, their annual salaries and benefits and all that. But that\u2019s the dilemma, and there\u2019s a third option here. Filing Chapter 11, which the automobile companies say they don\u2019t want to do because people aren\u2019t going to buy anything made by a company in bankruptcy, the question has to be asked, are they buying anything now? Are they buying enough product from Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler, to stave off any crisis that they\u2019re facing? It doesn\u2019t appear so because they keep coming back and asking for more money. So if we let \u2019em go Chapter 11, they can reorganize and at least start to run the company, reorganize in a way that they can run responsibly. That would put the unions out and this is all about saving the unions. I want to prepare you for the argument, ‘Well, we\u2019ve gotta protect these jobs.\u2019 There are no jobs in Michigan. So if the auto companies go belly up, if they go out of business, all these union workers, the United Auto Workers employees, the subsidiaries, where are they going to go to get work? They won\u2019t and that\u2019s bad for all of us, it\u2019s bad for the economy, so the pressure to continue to provide bailout money for the autoworkers is going to be to keep people employed because that helps all of us. <\/p>\n

Now, I want to make one last comment on all of this and then I\u2019m going to get off of this because it really bothers me. A business plan that focuses on cuts and reductions only, which is what we\u2019re dealing with, I mean, they\u2019re gonna cut Saturn, they\u2019re gonna eliminate Saturn, they\u2019re gonna basically have four brands with Pontiac as a special order. Going to do Buick, GMC, Cadillac, and Chevrolet, get rid of Saturn and so forth, they\u2019re going to keep the Hummer. They\u2019re going to get rid of the small cars that Saturn makes. A business plan that focuses on cuts and reductions, I mean, it must be done, obviously, but it frightens me a little bit. Bankers and creditors are an important part of any budget going forward, but so are customers. A business has to be relentless in how it markets itself. It\u2019s always talking to its customers, its future customers, it\u2019s always building confidence in the future, and not just by promising cutbacks. Right now, the auto companies are not even concerned about talking primarily to customers. They are concerned with persuading Washington. The automobile companies are forced into a situation here where they have to sell whatever they have to sell, and it isn\u2019t cars in this case, to Washington. <\/p>\n

Governments are better by being smaller. Private companies are at their best when they\u2019re expanding, efficient spending is supposed to be a given. A business plan does not exist in a vacuum, is my point. Customers are going to watch how this is marketed as closely as how the cars are marketed. See, the thing is, we all want General Motors to succeed. General Motors is a legacy in this country. It\u2019s a tradition. We want Ford to succeed, Chrysler. We want these companies to succeed. They say they can\u2019t take bankruptcy because some studies indicate people won\u2019t buy cars from a bankrupt company. Now, I think that if a company can tell the world why they have never been more excited about the future post-bankruptcy, they can inspire confidence. Trump understands this. Trump, regardless what\u2019s going on, is always confident, he\u2019s always positive, he is enthusiastic, and you have to be. That\u2019s part of the job. Selling is always part of the job. The car companies have lost their swagger. I wish they could get it back. The American people want to support General Motors and Ford and Chrysler. The American people are rooting for those companies. But we want to feel like we\u2019re rooting for people who refuse to fail. <\/p>\n

We want people to lead, who are fearless, promise to make products we\u2019ll absolutely fall in love with. That\u2019s not going to happen as long as these companies are cowering in the corner in fear of Congress. The American people want to see courage; they want to see leadership, independence. We want to see out of those executives exactly what we want out of the cars that they are selling. I see a totally defensive, negative posture, and who can blame \u2019em. They\u2019re totally prisoners now to Washington. What\u2019s happening to the automobile companies is a microcosm of what\u2019s going to happen to anybody who becomes totally dependent on Washington, when you live in constant fear. You can\u2019t make a move without their approval. They don\u2019t know what to approve or what not to approve because they\u2019re not experts and their motivation for approving things is going to be based on satisfying constituencies that have nothing to do with selling cars. This is a vicious cycle. <\/p>\n

Cessna, on the other hand, set the standard. Here is an industry that\u2019s under assault by the federal government, the Cessna CEO runs a full-page ad telling CEOs to buck up, to grow a pair, in essence, and remember what it was like to dream big things. That\u2019s how you market yourself, boldness, strength, independence, be your product. You got a car that goes zero to 60 in 4.5 seconds, be an executive that can do it, too. <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

RUSH: The automobile companies are next in line with their hands out. General Motors and Chrysler are asking for, what is it, the number being bandied about is $16 billion for General Motors, but I\u2019ve seen a total of 30 mentioned elsewhere. Let me find it here in the Stack. Yeah, GM needs up to […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":25,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0},"categories":[],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"\nAutomakers Must Regain Swagger and Sell Cars That Americans Want - The Rush Limbaugh Show<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/admin.rushlimbaugh.com\/daily\/2009\/02\/18\/automakers_must_regain_swagger_and_sell_cars_that_americans_want\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:card\" content=\"summary\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:title\" content=\"Automakers Must Regain Swagger and Sell Cars That Americans Want - The Rush Limbaugh Show\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:description\" content=\"RUSH: The automobile companies are next in line with their hands out. General Motors and Chrysler are asking for, what is it, the number being bandied about is $16 billion for General Motors, but I\u2019ve seen a total of 30 mentioned elsewhere. Let me find it here in the Stack. 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