Filed under: Opinion/Editorial
Detroit News columnist calls on Northerners to boycott Alabama over bailout
Despite the distinct thumb in the eye given by southern Republican senators like Alabama's Richard Shelby, General Motors and Chrysler have received the cash infusion the companies need to continue operations. Judging by Detroit News columnist John McCormick's inbox, many readers are calling on northern states to give it right back to the South. McCormick's readers note that those same southern states, which evidently have no qualms about giving huge tax breaks to foreign automakers to set up shop, also also seem to require a disproportionate amount of federal funding, including after natural disasters that require huge sums of federal aid.
Further, when events like Hurricane Katrina strike places like Alabama, automakers like Ford, GM and Chrysler are usually among the first to send in aid and emergency vehicles. McCormick's readers appear to suggest that maybe next time those companies shouldn't be so quick to help. Those who wrote in also suggest that Northerners - many of whom winter or vacation in the South - should consider spending all those dollars elsewhere instead.
Do McCormick's readers have it right? You know where to make your voice heard... let us know.
[Source: Detroit News | Photo: http://katrinapictures.blogspot.com/]
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
Mike 9:50AM (12/28/2008)
Gonna have a tough time convincing me that we should punish Alabama for having a better government than Michigan. And with respect to things like weather related disasters, as long as people like to live and vacation with an ocean view I think we'll be cleaning these messes up.
It hardly seems fair to hold disaster victims in a negative light because Alabama's government made it attractive to foreign auto makers to set up shop.
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notYou 10:39AM (12/28/2008)
Agreed.
Also - I love McCormick's lib mentality that equates government bailouts (err, loans) with tax exmeptions (err, breaks).
Difference: Bailouts take money from others (via taxes). Tax Exemptions allow those to keep what they own*.
Only in government is an exemption (read: not taking monies from those who own it) considered a loss.
(* please don't reply with that reverse psychology crap that says that Exemption-A means someone else has to pay more - that's the problem, not a symptom. Unless you're a socialist, you should be complaining that _anyone_ has to pay more.)
Noidor 11:18AM (12/28/2008)
Some publications just love to stir s**t up, that's all there is to it. There is zero validity to this story.
Kotse 12:02PM (12/28/2008)
Hurricanes are "Acts of God"...bailouts are acts of "socialists".
caddy-v 1:17PM (12/28/2008)
notyou,
Alabama offered a stunning $253 million incentive package to Mercedes. Additionally, the state also offered to train the workers, clear and improve the site, upgrade utilities, and buy 2,500 Mercedes Benz vehicles. All told, it is estimated that the incentive package totaled anywhere from $153,000 to $220,000 per created job. On top of all this, the state gave the foreign automaker a large parcel of land worth between $250 and $300 million, which was coincidentally how much the company expected to invest in building the plant.
I wonder who got stuck paying for all this. Surely not the taxpayers.
And to hell with our own, you say.
ronnie schreiber 2:16PM (12/28/2008)
"Gonna have a tough time convincing me that we should punish Alabama for having a better government than Michigan. "
Actually Alabama has a much more irresponsible government than Michigan. Michigan is looking at a budget deficit of about $617 million next year, just 2.7% of the total budget (ranked 43rd among the 50 states). Alabama is looking at a $1.2 billion budget shortfall, 15% of its budget, and is ranked the 6th worst state in terms of budget gap. It's gotten worse, btw, because last year it was in 7th place.
The truth is that states like Alabama, California, Arizona and Alaska will go bankrupt before the state of Michigan. Michigan has had a constitutionally mandated balanced budget since 1963. Since Michigan is usually impacted much more severely by recessions than most states, we have experience at tightening our belts and acting fiscally responsible.
As a matter of fact, when you consider all public and private debt (remember, California has over 60,000 homes in foreclosure, 4 times the number of Michigan) and the steep decline in property values in the Golden State, Californians billions more in debt than Michigan does, including the domestic automakers.
I tell people in the industrial Midwest to spend their vacation dollars in Puerto Rico. The money stays in the US. The people there don't say my neighbors are greedy, lazy and incompetent. The rum is great, the women are hotter than those inbred southern belles, and the people in Puerto Rico speak better English than the crackers in Dixie.
If big Dick, Shelby wants to act as though it's 1975 in Detroit, ignoring the massive restructuring that the domestic automakers have done, well, I suppose we should act as though Jim Crow never stopped, lynchings continue, and Bull Connor is still siccing german shepards on black folks.
ronnie schreiber 2:19PM (12/28/2008)
Correction: That should have been New York, not Alaska.
elprogramer 2:40PM (12/28/2008)
^Hear, hear.
tax lawyer 2:47PM (12/28/2008)
@NotYou
You may argue until you're blue, but in the grand scheme of things, a tax exemption means someone else foots the bill. Someone who doesn't pay taxes has a lower tax liability than someone who doesn't get the exemption -- in the real world, this means the other guy gets screwed.
sbessette91 3:15PM (12/28/2008)
In my opinion, that's ****.
There are a million different ways to spin it, but starting another Civil War probably isn't the right way to go.
Max 4:51PM (12/28/2008)
Surprising how a Southern state, with a large black population, sill votes Republican.
I mean..Republicans have made of FEMA a joke that cost many lives there, and they still don't get it?
geo.stewart 7:33PM (12/28/2008)
@ Max
suprising how most of the 10 poorest cities in the country, starting with Cleveland Detroit Miami Pittsburgh and Newark, have all had Democrat mayors and city councils for the last 20 years and still wont change a thing.
dukeisduke 9:56AM (12/28/2008)
I agree that Shelby is a hypocrite on this issue (DaimlerChrysler got huge tax breaks and incentives to build their plant in Vance, that builds ML-Class SUVs), but I wouldn't take it out on the citizens of Alabama.
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John 3:52PM (12/28/2008)
Why not? They voted for him.
And to the guy who said it was socialist to loan money to the automakers as opposed to tax breaks for the imports, I think you have it bass-ackwards. Tax breaks don't get paid back; loans do.
EquinsuOcha 9:57AM (12/28/2008)
Living in Alabama should be punishment enough.
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Derek 10:07AM (12/28/2008)
Agreed.
Mobius_1 11:05AM (12/28/2008)
So is driving through it with a car that has "man love rules ok" painted on it.
Adis 2:02PM (12/29/2008)
haha, i so AGREE.
Sofa King Fast! 10:03AM (12/28/2008)
North VS South?
I thought we sorted this out a long time ago.
If this bailout accomplished anything it exposed some of the sad realities of the american psyche. Given the choice, we will choose to satisfy our greed before we improve our country.
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TigerMil 2:24PM (12/28/2008)
The War of Northern Aggression will never be over.
Hell, NO!