Jed Lewison: "Let Me Get This Straight"

Jed Report:

The Democratic leadership in Congress is having trouble putting together votes for the auto industry bailout and somehow it's Barack Obama's fault? Are you kidding me?

Obama has consistently favored giving the auto industry a boost.

In fact, he helped put the issue on the table. Shortly after the election, when he met with President Bush, the PEOTUS raised the issue with the POTUS:

At their private Oval Office meeting on Monday, President-elect Barack Obama urged President Bush to support billions of dollars in aid for the struggling auto industry during the upcoming lame-duck session of Congress, according to three officials briefed on the meeting.

The officials said Bush privately expressed skepticism about taxpayer money for automakers on the heels of a string of government bailouts for other industries, and the president also urged Obama to help push through a free trade pact with Colombia - a key legacy item for the outgoing administration that is facing stiff resistance from Democrats on Capitol Hill.

So no matter what Barney Frank, who I normally love, might say, Barack Obama has been doing his part to put this issue front and center. The President-elect is not the problem here. He doesn't have some sort of secret magic sauce that will suddenly allow Nancy Pelosi and Harry Reid to put together a majority.

The problem is that you've got a bunch of Republican Senators and House members who are eager to lose the auto industry so that they can make an ideological point about the supposed evils of labor unions (which would be a whole lot less relevant if we had decent national health care and retirement systems), and you've got a bunch of Democratic members of Congress who won't stand up to them.

Keep in mind that Democrats are the majority party in Congress right now. If they can't stand up against these right wing bullies without the intervention of the President-elect, then there's no hope for them.

Remember, all this fighting is over a $34 billion loan package. Loans, not grants.

Compare it to the $500 billion - $1 trillion stimulus package that we're going to need to get through Congress, hopefully by the end of January.

That's going to be some real spending, and it won't be easy to pass.

So if they think getting this loan package passed is too hard, how in the world are they going to get a stimulus done?

Barack Obama