Kristyne McDaniel Opinion Blog

I’ve been seeing the talking heads on the news discussing whether or not to ‘bail out’ the American auto industry.

Personally, I’m appalled.

How can it be acceptable to allow even one of the remaining Big Three to go under for lack of liquidity? The folks I hear who are the least inclined to back enhanced liquidity for the American automakers all seem to come from Southern states, which have auto plants from Toyota and other foreign makers in their states.

The Southern states giving tax breaks to foreign automakers deliberately repress union participation, and receive far more in federal funding than they pay in taxes. They’re being funded by the western, northern, and northeastern states every day… but yet they take it upon themselves to be critical of Michigan’s desire to prevent massive job losses.

Yes, the Big Three have union workers who receive health benefits. What is so terrible about that? Have Americans decided that ‘other’ Americans that don’t live next door to them are not entitled to a middle-class wage with benefits just because their leadership sold them out to Toyota?

Finally, since when do the American auto companies avoid making cars that people want? A better reporting job needs to be done on the product lines produced by Ford and GM and Chrysler. They produce MORE fuel-efficient vehicles than the foreign auto makers, not less. The fact that they have ALSO produced SUVs is due to market influences — Americans wanted them — right up until the cost of fuel shot up.

Steve and I have a big Ford 1-ton truck for transporting equipment to job sites. We drive a Ford Focus that gets 30 mpg for daily trips. It is a PZEV, which means Practically Zero Emissions Vehicle. In fact, in a cross-country drive it produces the same amount of pollution as running a lawnmower for an hour produces.

There are half-truths and downright lies being bandied about by Congress about how the auto industry is a home for idiot corporate heads. The real truth is that not one of them could run General Motors, and the majority of them should just shut their pie holes.

Put me on the record as being FOR a package to shore up the American auto industry through enhanced liquidity.

The latest fires in NW Los Angeles County, Orange County, and Riverside County are the latest in a long series of devastating California fires in the dangerous zones on the other side of the mountains from us.

Three days after Christmas in 1973, my family’s home burned down in Wayzata Minnesota. My brothers, my sister, and I all woke up to a big blaze that was accidentally started in our house, and had to deal with all of the things any child fears in a fire. Contacting the fire department, how we’d explain what happened to our parents, and then finally with the loss of all our personal belongings.

I know what it feels like to watch my home burn, to see one or two items rescued by firefighters, and to go to a Red Cross shelter to get a few items of clothings and cots to sleep on.

Please go to www.RedCross.org and make donations on the web, and then go and give blood. The Red Cross coffers are low, and both money and blood are needed more than ever. Right now most of the needs are for things like clothing and money, but blood is always needed as well.