NFIB is opposing any attempt to bail out Detroit’s Big Three auto companies without significant restructuring and effective independent oversight.

One publication described our opposition to a bailout without conditions as “surprising.” Not at all, and here’s the reason why: There are many small businesses across the country struggling to make payroll and pay the bills. They aren’t asking for a bailout, and neither should the automakers.

Proposals to provide as much as $50 billion to Detroit are a misguided attempt to bail out companies that are in this situation not because of the credit crisis, but because of a long series of decisions that have led these once-admired corporations to where they are today.

While Detroit has been shedding American jobs, small businesses have been creating them. It is unfair to small business owners to ask them to help pay for:

• Gold-plated healthcare plans they don’t have and can’t afford
• Generous pensions they don’t have and can’t afford
• Platinum-level retirement benefits they don’t have and can’t afford.

Any taxpayer dollars provided to the Big Three must come with specific conditions, starting with top-to-bottom scrutiny of everything from the effectiveness of current management to the nature of their union and supplier contracts.

One model to consider is the federal Air Transportation Stabilization Board, which helped to support a restructuring of the airline industry after 9/11 while protecting taxpayers’ interests. That protection should be Job One in any debate over this issue.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, November 19th, 2008 at 11:15 am and is filed under Uncategorized .