Dec 08 2008
Take the Money and Run
A group of of workers from Chicago’s Republic Windows and Doors, are refusing to leave the grounds of a defunct company. Under the Worker’s Adjustment and Retraining Notification Act of 1988 (WARN), companies with over 100 employees have to give 60 days notice that the company is closing. The workers in Chicago got three days.
Since the plant closed its doors last week, 200 locked-out employees have been standing vigil outside the shuttered gates. They are demanding the company pay them their benefits. The company says they can’t because Bank of America, the company’s lender, has cut-off their credit. Here’s the problem: Bank of America just got 25 billion dollars in taxpayer bailout money. Remember? They needed the money to make sure businesses didn’t have to close their doors? So what did they do with the money? They paid off their own mistakes, leaving America’s businesses to fend for themselves. What’s happening to the workers of Republic Windows and Doors is only the beginning.
Taxpayers were wary of this behemoth effort to throw good money after bad in the first place. Now, they’re outraged and confused. It’s a natural response; after all, we’ve been hoodwinked. The truth is, the huge financial institutions that paid fast and loose with rules, drove an entire nation into economic despair and are wholly unrepentant for their thievery, are going to do just what Bank of America did-take the money and run.
Now, as churches in Detroit drive SUVs onto their altars to pray for a bailout, we have to ask: will the automakers do what the financial institutions did? Probably. But let’s not forget Congress in this little slam dance.
Senator Chris Dodd (D) wants the CEO of GM to resign when the bailout goes through. Wow, that’s bold. A leading member of the do-nothing Congress wants someone to resign? Either this guy is really brave or really stupid. I’m opting for both. The hubris of Dodd and his fellow democrats like Barney Frank who have personal relationships with failed financial institutions is beyond belief. Maybe every member of Congress who allowed the current financial melt down, no FACILITATED the current crisis, should resign. The halls of Capitol Hill would echo with silence.
This is only the beginning. As more companies and banks are bailed out by the taxpayers, they’re not going to pump money back into the economy; instead, they’re going to do just what Bank of America did-take the money and run. Later chumps.
Stop the government bailouts. Call your congressman today!
