So it appears that the government will be funded for 6 more weeks, in an agreement reached recently which provides additional FEMA funding, but is off-set by reducing/eliminating a Federal Loan Program, designed to help US Automakers re-tool their plants to accomodiate the increased demands for fuel efficient vehicles.

 

I'm curious to hear people's opinions on this.

 

My two cents...

 

1) I find it interesting, that the Party pushing the "off-set" of the clean car/increased fuel efficiency program, receives a lot of campaign cash from Oil and Gas Companies. There are other programs that could have been cut, but why did they choose this one?

 

2) Being a loan program, I'm assuming this means that temporarily funds go out the door, and hopefully they return, with some level of interest. This isn't a handout, its a government backed loan program. Assuming debts are paid in full, wouldn't this be a revenue enhancing program for the government? No matter how small?

 

3) Wouldn't re-tooling these plants be a boost in job creation? Why would you cut a program that can help put people to work right away and help make US automakers (who employ hundreds of thousands of workers) more competitive with their foreign competitors?

The honest answer? Because the Republican party hasn't really been interested in Job Creation, unless it means more Republican asses in chairs in Washington D.C.

 

This may not be the case with many Repbulican congressmen, but the path has been pretty clear since February of 2009, that within the leadership of the GOP, politics has taken a back seat to any sense of governing responsibly.