Letter to the Editor: America ... Wake Up!

America ... WAKE UP!!

I just had the opportunity to review a video of a recent meeting of the General Motors CEO (Dan Akerson) while giving a speech to those in China where he states that this year "seven out of 10 vehicles built by GM were built outside of America."

This is after Obama gave 80 billion to “save” GM and Chrysler for America. Now, as Akerson stated, GM has 11 joint ventures with the communist Chinese government.

In 1999, the U.S. Department of Commerce had a research document stating that “GM was willing to transfer state-of-the-art technology to China,” and according to Akerson, GM has now transferred its “Technology Center” to China.

The former GM Nexteer Plant in Saginaw, MI—the largest employer in that area—was sold on a “pass-through” deal to Pacific Century Motors (Chinese-owned) and a few months later the property was transferred to Aviation Industry Corporation of China (AVIC), a communist Chinese company that has been reported to have supplied anti-ship missiles to the Islamic Republic of Iran.

While there were complaints about Obama’s team of “experts” placed into the positions within bailout process for these auto giants, the media—as usual—never reported that these other activities were taking place and failed to report them as time went on.

We also now realize why they did not need to know anything about the car industry since that was not the real purpose of the bailout as we are now finding out.

During the briefing mentioned above, Akerson explained, “We (GM) continue to invest heavily in China to ensure our long term success.” He also called China “the crown jewel in the GM universe.”

Well America, don’t you feel better that your tax dollars were used to save these “good American union” jobs so they can be replaced with workers in a communist state, and that your billions spent allow GM to move a very large part of its operations out of this country under the auspices (as used by Obama in recent ads) of saving the “middle class.”

How many times do we have to get slapped in the face by this bunch of thieves before we wake up? The track record under Obama as far as spending our tax dollars for his personal agenda should come to a close—NOW! Let’s take a real fast look at recent expenditures/failures under his “leadership":

• Said “NO” to the Keystone pipeline, which will allow foreign companies to take the pipeline through Canada and bypass American refineries with the loss of thousands of union jobs.
• Billions to failed “green energy companies” (which also were large contributors to him and the party). I.e. Solyndra, Solar Trust of America, Beacon Power and Ener1 costing the American taxpayer more than a million per job created in those companies for very short term employment. The New York Times reported, it was nothing more than “a pipe dream.” Further, these are taxpayer-funded jobs that destroy jobs elsewhere in the economy. When the government gives money to build a windmill, for example, those resources cannot simultaneously be used to build other products. The net effect is job and income losses. Obama had promised to create 5 million green jobs over 10 years (as of this time a few hundred jobs still exist, but most have been sent again to Asia, with China being the biggest recipient of the bailout monies as the main suppliers to the companies mentioned above).
• Electric cars were a large part of his energy policy, but each one purchased gets $7,500 of your tax dollars that are given to the buyer (and as we know, cars like the Volt are having some major problems). According to the Wall Street Journal (March 5, 2012 - Volt Problems Could Hurt Obama’s Electric-Car Plan “The government has made several investments to promote the electric car industry, including granting GM $105.9 million to help it produce battery packs for the Volt, and $151.4 million in a grant for LG Chem to produce battery cells for the Volt. The government also gives buyers of electric cars a tax credit.” And, we have not talked about the fires that happened in these cars.
• This administration has limited exploration of oil and gas within the U.S. to the point where most companies that refine oil are going to be selling or closing down their refineries over the next few years largely due to the current DEP regulations. One of the main reasons Japan and Germany were not able to continue WWII was due to the lack of capacity to obtain oil and gas (see the movie The Battle of the Bulge as an example).
• His constant push for “Cap and Trade” has been proven a terrible program in most countries that tried to implement it.
• Yet, purely for political reasons, the Obama administration decided to terminate the Yucca Mountain nuclear waste repository project without having anything to replace it. Absent any nuclear waste disposal options, the U.S. simply will not significantly expand nuclear energy.
• Obama’s EPA has imposed corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) standard requiring auto makers to hit an average 54.5 miles per gallon by 2025—a 40 percent reduction in fuel consumption compared to today. The Center for Automotive Research warned that overly stringent standards could add $10,000 to the cost of a new car, decreasing sales and thereby reducing production—destroying as many as 220,000 jobs, according to a report by the Defour Group. And a 2002 National Academy of Sciences study concludes that CAFE’s downsizing effect makes cars less safe and contributed to between 1,300 and 2,600 deaths in a single representative year.

The saddest thing about all of the above is that I was looking to purchase a new car, but I wanted to buy “American." However, I now realize that since a very large part of the “traditional” American market (Cadillac, GMC, Chevrolet, Buick) is being sold outright to China right under our noses and with the terrible smell of major political corruption that the country, let alone the world, has never seen the likes of before.

I feel that I would therefore be better off buying a car made by one of our current allies (since we certainly don’t have a clue what this administration is doing). What about those “American union employees” that he has touted to be protecting over the past few years. One would have to wonder why they support any of these politicians that support this derailing of the American system and in the long run losing their jobs to other countries under their selected leadership.

Recently, the unions in Wisconsin have pushed for a recall of the governor, and the state goes to the polls soon to vote on their future. Sunday, the last voter’s survey was taken and I read that the union chiefs were surprised to hear that 39 percent of union households within that state supported the governor.

Maybe they are seeing the true picture prior to the rest of us? 

-William Merrell, resident and school board member