RUSH ARCHIVE: Don’t worry. The automobile industry is not going to go kaput because the United Auto Workers will not be allowed to go kaput.
CALLER: Well, God knows I hope not.
RUSH ARCHIVE: What’s going to happen is the UAW is going to end up owning it.
CALLER: What? (laughing)
RUSH ARCHIVE: After the government invests and nationalizes the auto industry, the Obama administration, out of a sense of compassion, will transfer ownership free of charge, just transfer the deed to the United Auto Workers.
RUSH: Today, ladies and gentlemen, the Wall Street Journal has the dirty details. Fifty-five percent of Chrysler owned by the United Auto Workers, 35% owned by President Obama, common shares, which means voting, 39% of General Motors owned by the United Auto Workers, the rest owned by President Obama. This was so easy to predict once I figured out what his plan is, to return the nation’s wealth to its, quote, unquote, rightful owners. So in Obama’s worldview the United Auto Workers has been screwed ever since it was founded by the auto companies. The executives have gotten rich, the white-collar guys have gotten rich, the salaried people have gotten rich, and the union guys have gotten dirt. They’ve had to eat excrement sandwich. It’s payback time, it is payback time. And so today, once again — do you realize what this is going to do to my opinion audit? I mean this is a big, big, big addition to the accuracy rating.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Now, as for the United Auto Workers ending up owning 55% of Chrysler and 39% of General Motors, the General Motors deal is really a screw job for people who invested in GM bonds. The people who invested in General Motors bonds are going to get maybe a dime on the dollar. Larry Kudlow puts it a good way. ‘The government is about to take over GM in a plan that completely screws private bondholders and favors the unions. Get this: The GM bondholders own $27 billion and they’re getting 10 percent of the common stock in an expected exchange.
‘And the UAW owns $10 billion of the bonds and they’re getting 40 percent of the stock. Huh? Did I miss something here? And Uncle Sam will have a controlling share of the stock with something close to 50 percent ownership,’ in GM, ‘And no bankruptcy judge. So this is a political restructuring run by the White House, not a rule-of-law bankruptcy-court reorganization. Meanwhile, top Obama adviser Valerie Jarrett opened the door wide on CNN yesterday to bank nationalization and CEO firings.’ Now, these stress tests are coming out of the banks, and guess what? Citibank may need more money. The stress tests, exactly as I called them last week, are possess tests. The stress tests are possess tests! More government ownership, more government control of the banks. The UAW, the unions, now get the official payback for all these years of supporting Democrats and President Obama.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Now, I also have some people, and I checked the e-mail during the break: ‘Rush, are you sure your numbers are right on this GM deal with the bondholders and who gets what percentage?’ Yes! Yes, my friends, I am. What has just happened is that Don Obama has made Don Corleone look like Daffy Duck. Don Corleone was nothing compared to Don Obama. You want to talk loan sharking? Let me tell you how this loan sharking worked. Bondholders, people who purchased General Motors bonds, did so to the tune of $27 billion. Big government, Don Obama put up $15 billion, just a tad less than that. So basically the private sector bondholders put up almost twice as much money to save General Motors as Don Obama did. And at the end of the day, Don Obama gets 50% of the company, and the bondholders get 10% of the company. The bondholders put up twice as much as Don Obama, and Don Obama gets half the company; the bondholders get 10%.
That means they invested in the bonds wanting a profit. There are bondholders who were using the $800,000 throw-off. That’s how much some of these bondholders had gained over the years, the bonds had thrown that much income off. One guy’s retirement is worth nothing. It’s worth 10% of that. So he’s got a requirement now worth $80,000 thanks to Don Obama. Don Obama owns half of General Motors, and Don Obama’s army — his consiglieris, his capo di tuttis or whatever they are — they have the other 39% of the company. How does somebody put up half as much money and get five times as much control of the company? What makes this even worse is that if General Motors would go bankrupt, the bondholders wouldn’t get 10%, they’d get a hundred percent! That’s what reorganization and restructuring is all about.
So someone has to ask the question: How in the world would any bond buyer trust a bond again? So, in the case of Don Obama, you keep your friends close, your enemies closer. World War II, ladies and gentlemen, ended with a surrender on the USS Missouri. Capitalism may have surrendered in the General Motors boardroom. You go over to Chrysler, it’s even worse. There, Don Obama’s capo di tuttis, the consiglieri, whatever, the soldiers? They get 55% of Chrysler, Don Obama gets 35%, and the private sector gets 10% of Chrysler. I had somebody send me a note last night: ‘I’m never buying an American car again.’ Now, let’s take a look at some real facets of this. Let’s start with General Motors. Don Obama has 50% of the company. His soldiers, the UAW, have 39%, which means — by the way…
And look, I’m going to pat myself on the back. I predicted this back in December. I knew this was gonna happen. This was the game plan all along. It’s not Obama’s answer to every problem; it’s his objective: Nationalize every business. It’s not his solution. It’s his objective. You know, people are getting caught up, ‘Well, his answer to this problem is he’s gotta do this and gotta do that.’ No! This was his objective from the get-go. So let’s say when the deal here is done, let’s talk about Chrysler, 55% of Don Obama’s boys own the thing. When you go in to a Chrysler dealership, do you realize you’re going to be walking into satellite office of the Democrat National Committee? These dealerships will close on Election Day. You won’t be able to buy a car on Election Day. You’ll probably be able to register to vote when you buy a car. Voter registration will be on — and union membership will be automatic, even if you don’t work at a union place, you’ll be an honorary union member when you go buy a car.
Every car will produced with Obama bumper stickers built in. You can’t rip ’em off. Dealerships will check applications to make sure the applicants who want loans to buy cars are Democrats. If your car breaks down and you complain about the repair bill, you will get audited — and you might want to keep a sharp eye on your kneecaps. And then try this. This is going to be interesting for me to watch at Chrysler and General Motors. Chrysler has 55% of the UAW owning the company. That means they’re going to have a majority of seats on the board of directors. At General Motors, it’s 39%, so they’ll have not a majority but they’re going to have a lot of people on the boards of directors. So it’s going to be union people deciding how much union people earn. It’s going to be union management telling union employees where they have to work, how much they have to work.
Let’s see how the union does as management. Let’s see how the union handles salaries, wages, overtime and all of this. Who’s going to design the car? Oh, that’s another thing. (laughing) Who’s going to design the cars? Who is going to manufacture them? Who’s gonna…? (laughing) Sorry, the Sierra Club will be the car designer. The Sierra Club, Earth First, these will be the designers of automobiles. But now seriously, stop and think of this. The union will be on the compensation committee. The union will be determining how much the union makes. The union will be becoming management and so forth. This is just — and, of course, nobody in the union is going to have to have had sunk a dime of investment into this company. They’re just being given these positions.
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: Here’s Torren — I hope I’m pronouncing that right — in Austin, Texas. Hello.
CALLER: This is Torren. How you doing, Rush?
RUSH: Very well, sir. Thank you.
CALLER: My point is going back to the GM story.
RUSH: Yes?
CALLER: I’d like to… I’ve always thought this, but it’s more reiterated now, that it’s almost un-American to buy American. Buying an American car, supporting a union organization that is out — at one point not only to destroy the business it was working for, but now it’s out to destroy the fabric of the country in which it lives.
RUSH: (laughing)
CALLER: So buying American is un-American.
RUSH: I’ve had a lot of people send me e-mail notes that have sentiments similar to yours. ‘I’m never buying an American car again.’ (laughing)
CALLER: I work at a GM dealership! I work at a GM dealership. I sell cars, so it’s just kind of hard.
RUSH: You know, you’re going to have some help. I wouldn’t give up, quitting the job just yet. You know, with the union owning 39% of General Motors, you’re going to have some help. You know, when people come in and want to test-drive a car and drive it, if they don’t buy it, you’re going to have some guy walking around threatening the potential buyer’s kneecaps. I think it might be an easier sale now.
CALLER: I think what’s going to have to happen is not only is he going to have to do what he does at GM, he’s going to have to find a way to hurt the other car manufacturers to where people are more prone to go to GM as opposed to buying cars that they actually want to buy.
RUSH: We’ll see. You know, I’m reading all this happening last night, and I’m chitchatting with people, and last night was one of the nights that just made me laugh. And please don’t misunderstand. It is infuriating. He says it’s un-American. It used to be, ‘As GM goes, so goes America.’ I guess it’s true! (laughing) It’s in the toilet, I guess. I guess it’s true. It’s like, folks — have you been researching this for me? — Khrushchev give a date when he said that they were going to bury us?
BREAK TRANSCRIPT
RUSH: So we’ve got the bondholders at General Motors who put up $27 billion and are going to get 10% of the company, Don Obama and his soldiers, the United Auto Workers, put up $10 million of bonds; they’re going to get 39% of the company. (snorts) I’m sure it was an offer they can’t refuse. It was an offer nobody could refuse. But I predicted this. Grab sound bite number two. Grab it again. I predicted this back on December 22nd. Let me know when you’ve got sound bite number two ready to go. Sound bite number two. Here it is.
RUSH ARCHIVE: Don’t worry. The automobile industry is not going to go kaput because the United Auto Workers will not be allowed to go kaput.
CALLER: Well, God knows I hope not.
RUSH ARCHIVE: What’s going to happen is the UAW is going to end up owning it.
CALLER: (laughing)
RUSH ARCHIVE: After the government invests and nationalizes the auto industry, the Obama administration, out of a sense of compassion, will transfer ownership — free of charge, just transfer the deed — to the United Auto Workers.
RUSH: Yeah. The caller was laughing when I said it. Everybody was laughing when I said it. Now here it is reality. Admit it, you laughed when I said it. ‘Oh, come on, Rush! There you go. You’re going off the deep end again. I predicted it on December 22nd. Didn’t happen exactly like that, but the bottom line is, when I heard Obama say — Well, didn’t hear him say it, but you can read what he says between the lines, translate what he says. He’s gonna return the nation’s wealth to its, quote, unquote, ‘rightful owners,’ and in Obama’s worldview, union workers have been screwed left and right by CEO, by management, by everybody else, and it’s about time. Auto companies would not have been auto companies without the autoworkers, so put them on the boards of directors. Look at this. Washington Post: ‘GM to Forge Ahead Without Key Brands — Automaker to Shed Pontiac, Hummer, Saturn, Saab Lines.’
That’s S-a-a-b, for those of you in Rio Linda who might think they were crying. It’s the name of a car. ‘Yesterday, General Motors traded imagination for reality, saying it will dump Pontiac along with Hummer, Saturn and Saab — and placed its future in the hands of Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and GMC. ‘It’s a pretty sad day,’ said Jack R. Nerad, executive editorial director at Kelley Blue Book, a leading provider of information on new- and used-vehicles. His first Pontiac was a used 1968 Firebird, one of the most beloved compact muscle cars.’ My first car was a Pontiac. I wanted to get a GTO, 1969, but I couldn’t afford it. I had to get a LeMans. It had the same body, a little bit different grille. Not as snazzy an interior and certainly not as big an engine. The GTO was awesome.
Beach Boys sang about it. ‘Little GTO-oooo’ Well, the Beach Boys sang all kinds of cars, car crashes, death, flames, crashes. Still, they sang about GTO. So I had a LeMans. I did have the money to order a walnut shift knob. It was a four-speed. That was the one liberty I took. (interruption) No, that car that I was told needed a new disgronificator was a Pontiac Bonneville. My first car was a Pontiac. My second car was a Buick and my third car was a Pontiac. There aren’t any Pontiacs anymore. How does this read? ‘Yesterday GM traded imagination for reality and pared itself back.’ You know, wouldn’t it be great if our government demanded the same of itself: trading imagination for reality and pare back what isn’t working? This is… I mean, we’re laughing at it, ’cause I’m just seeing a bunch of Tony Sopranos as car salesmen now.
I’m seeing every car come off the assembly line with a welded-in Obama bumper sticker, maybe even an Obama hood ornament. I’m laughing here at union leaders deciding what union workers are going to make, what the wages are gonna be. I can’t wait to see that contract negotiation. I can’t wait to see the United Auto Workers negotiate with the United Auto Workers, and I can’t wait for the UAW to threaten to go on strike, telling the UAW if it doesn’t meet its demands, that the UAW is going to go on strike. I just can’t wait to see this. Yeah, hood ornament. Obama interiors by Michelle. Power train designed by Steve Rattner. These cars are going to be designed by the Sierra Club, folks, and Greenpeace. You know, if you want a General Motors car, while it’s still General Motors, right now is the time to do it. Honest-to-goodness. So they’re holding on to Cadillac. They’re holding onto Chevrolet, Buick, and GMC, and — I happen to know this — General Motors has got a new sales plan for Cadillac and they’ve still got the Hummer, too.
They’ve gotta get rid of the inventory, so they’re backing for five years the power train, five years, hundred thousand miles, whichever comes first, a full year of OnStar is standard on every Cadillac model. OnStar is amazing. In fact, it’s got a nav system that beats most other navigation systems if where you want to go… Like if you’re headed to Port St. Lucie, and where you want to go in Port St. Lucie is not in the navigation system, all you have to do is call the OnStar operator, and they’ll give you a turn by turn directions because they know. There’s a number if you’re in an emergency, if you need a car unlocked. If you go into McDonald’s and you get all upset in there because they’re outta McNuggets, and you didn’t shut the car off.
The keys are in it, you go back out, and you’re still mad because you got no McNuggets. ‘My God, how do I get in the car?’ Call OnStar, and they’ll unlock the car for you. Well, they may not get… They’ll direct to you where they do have McNuggets, if the McDonald’s you’re at doesn’t have them, but yeah, OnStar can do a lot. And also this. If you lose your job, they’ll make the car payment up to 500 bucks a month, up to nine months, and it’s such a shame ’cause the Cadillac is a great car. We’ve driven a lot of them. What’s the crossover? It’s the XRX or something. It’s just a great car. So General Motors is still moving automobiles out there, doing what they can, and they are making deals, and if you want a General Motors car, now might be the time to look into it.