Economics: Congressonal elections 2006: Big Three made-in-USA auto companies put pressure on GOP

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Reporter Charles Hurt, "GOP told to ignore Detroit at its peril" (Aug25,2k6) Washington Times analyzes the tension between historically-American carmakers headquartered in Detroit and the Republican Party in Michigan, with a Senate seat as well as governorship being hotly contested. Big Biz is supposed to support the GOP, according to conventional wiz. Apparently not so, this election year.

DETROIT -- Republicans here say that their national party's dismissive attitude toward the Big Three automakers could doom the party's hopes of capturing the governor's mansion and Senate seat in a large blue state this November.

North America > USA

Republicans in Congress have belittled Detroit's woes in recent weeks, and President Bush has been less than sympathetic to their plight, saying that they should focus on building more "relevant" vehicles.

But no slight has been more insulting here than the much-delayed meeting between Mr. Bush and the heads of Detroit's automakers to discuss U.S. trade policies and domestic issues such as health care costs, expensive pensions and other obligations to the federally protected autoworker unions.

"The administration is wrong on this issue," said Republican Dick DeVos, a longtime Bush supporter who has a good shot at unseating Gov. Jennifer M. Granholm, who was a superstar among Democrats just two years ago. Since the summer, polls have shown the two swapping leads by a handful of points.

Principium Consumers Hub:

"The president needs to meet with the Big Three, and it must happen soon," Mr. DeVos told reporters this week. "29,000 people in Michigan lost jobs last month."

The state's unemployment rate is at 7 percent, which has given Republicans unusual openings in a state dominated by Democrats. It's been 18 years since a Republican won Michigan in a presidential election.

But is the job-bleed the fawlt of the guv? or is it simply the price of gas? Or could it be that at least a contributing factor is consumer dissatisfaction with the Big Three's product? If some brilliant economist could quantify the marginal factor of some Americans (how many?) getting sick of gas-guzzling pollution-engined autos, we mite be able to judge whether Prez Bush's attitude (if reported correctly by Hurst) is a positive moment in laissez-faire or whether the Fed govt should once again bail out these "heritage" megacapitalist corporations -- wastemakers and polluters in their own r+t, but also held up by union wage and benefit demands that are now sinking the ship that feeds them.

-- Owlb