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.
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
SECURITY RISK: If there is a conflict between China and Taiwan, ‘there would likely be significant consequences to global economic and security interests,’ it said China remains the top military and cyber threat to the US and continues to make progress on capabilities to seize Taiwan, a report by US intelligence agencies said on Tuesday. The report provides an overview of the “collective insights” of top US intelligence agencies about the security threats to the US posed by foreign nations and criminal organizations. In its Annual Threat Assessment, the agencies divided threats facing the US into two broad categories, “nonstate transnational criminals and terrorists” and “major state actors,” with China, Russia, Iran and North Korea named. Of those countries, “China presents the most comprehensive and robust military threat