The US Senate took on the role of Christmas Grinch for autoworkers when it failed on Thursday to pass a US$14 billion rescue package for Detroit’s three major car manufacturers.
Attention now turns to the US Treasury Department, who Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid and other supporters of a bailout said should dip into the US$700 billion fund Congress created to help Wall Street firms and banks, and lend automakers the money they need to avoid bankruptcy and save millions of jobs.
The Senate late on Thursday came only a few “yes” votes short of the 60 needed to block a filibuster on the bailout bill, effectively killing any chance of Congress providing a lifeline to the financially drowning automakers this year.
“It’s going to be a very, very bad Christmas for a lot of people based on what takes place here tonight,” Reid told his colleagues before the vote. “It’s over with.”
“I dread looking at Wall Street tomorrow. It’s not going to be a pleasant sight,” he said.
A Treasury Department official declined to comment on the Senate’s failure to approve the rescue package and said it was up to the White House to respond.
White House spokesman Tony Fratto said the administration would evaluate its options “in light of the breakdown in Congress,” saying the legislation had “presented the best chance to avoid a disorderly bankruptcy while ensuring taxpayer funds only go to firms whose stakeholders were prepared to make difficult decisions to become viable.”
Senators negotiated late into the night on a possible compromise that participants said fell apart over proposed wage concessions by the powerful United Auto Workers union.
“We are about three words — three words — away from a deal,” said Senator Bob Corker, a Tennessee Republican who proposed the alternative and led the talks.
Democrat Chris Dodd, chairman of the Senate banking committee, criticized Republican senators for pushing for steep wage cuts and warned the auto industry’s fate was tied up with the wider economy.
“I’m deeply saddened. But more than saddened, I’m worried,” Dodd said. “This will fail, we will go home, and I’m afraid our country will be in deeper and deeper trouble.”
For workers in the industry, “this will not be a joyous season wondering whether or not their jobs, their livelihoods, their homes, their children’s futures are at risk,” he said.
For GM and Chrysler, the last hope for a government lifeline appeared to rest with the White House, which has so far refused to draw on the US$700 billion Wall Street bailout fund for the reeling car companies.
The financial bailout money “may be where they go next,” said Republican Senator John Thune.
Reid called on US President George W. Bush to reconsider his administration’s opposition to dipping into the Wall Street rescue fund, known as the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).
“I would hope that the president who has worked so well with us the past few weeks on this legislation would now consider using the TARP money to help the auto industry and the workers of this country,” he said.
Democrats initially pushed for a portion of the funds for the auto bailout but the Bush administration refused.
The White House, which suffered a stinging political defeat after backing the Democrats’ proposal for the short-term auto rescue loans, did not say if it would relent on freeing up the financial bailout funds.
General Motors Corp and Chrysler LLC are seeking billions of dollars in immediate aid, while Ford Motor Co wants a hefty line of credit.
As prospects for passage dimmed, US blue chips on Thursday tumbled 195.85 points (2.24 percent) to 8,565.57 at the closing bell while the NASDAQ fell 57.60 points (3.68 percent) to 1,507.88.
PREPAREDNESS: Given the difficulty of importing ammunition during wartime, the Ministry of National Defense said it would prioritize ‘coproduction’ partnerships A newly formed unit of the Marine Corps tasked with land-based security operations has recently replaced its aging, domestically produced rifles with more advanced, US-made M4A1 rifles, a source said yesterday. The unnamed source familiar with the matter said the First Security Battalion of the Marine Corps’ Air Defense and Base Guard Group has replaced its older T65K2 rifles, which have been in service since the late 1980s, with the newly received M4A1s. The source did not say exactly when the upgrade took place or how many M4A1s were issued to the battalion. The confirmation came after Chinese-language media reported
The Taiwanese passport ranked 33rd in a global listing of passports by convenience this month, rising three places from last month’s ranking, but matching its position in January last year. The Henley Passport Index, an international ranking of passports by the number of designations its holder can travel to without a visa, showed that the Taiwan passport enables holders to travel to 139 countries and territories without a visa. Singapore’s passport was ranked the most powerful with visa-free access to 192 destinations out of 227, according to the index published on Tuesday by UK-based migration investment consultancy firm Henley and Partners. Japan’s and
A Ministry of Foreign Affairs official yesterday said that a delegation that visited China for an APEC meeting did not receive any kind of treatment that downgraded Taiwan’s sovereignty. Department of International Organizations Director-General Jonathan Sun (孫儉元) said that he and a group of ministry officials visited Shenzhen, China, to attend the APEC Informal Senior Officials’ Meeting last month. The trip went “smoothly and safely” for all Taiwanese delegates, as the Chinese side arranged the trip in accordance with long-standing practices, Sun said at the ministry’s weekly briefing. The Taiwanese group did not encounter any political suppression, he said. Sun made the remarks when
BROAD AGREEMENT: The two are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff to 15% and a commitment for TSMC to build five more fabs, a ‘New York Times’ report said Taiwan and the US have reached a broad consensus on a trade deal, the Executive Yuan’s Office of Trade Negotiations said yesterday, after a report said that Washington is set to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent. The New York Times on Monday reported that the two nations are nearing a trade deal to reduce Taiwan’s tariff rate to 15 percent and commit Taiwan Semiconductor Manufacturing Co (TSMC, 台積電) to building at least five more facilities in the US. “The agreement, which has been under negotiation for months, is being legally scrubbed and could be announced this month,” the paper said,
RSS