RedPlanetCartoons

The rest of this cartoon can be seen at the American Spectator blog.

The rest of this cartoon can be seen at the American Spectator blog.

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DC Examiner: Make UAW Sell its Championship Golf Course Before a Bailout.

What do UAW executives and workers do to relax? They play golf at the union’s highly touted championship caliber Black Lake Golf Club, designed by Rees Jones. The UAW golf club is in secluded Onaway, MI, as part of the union’s Walter and Mary Reuther Family Education Center. Also part of Black Lake are a learning center, a practice facility with practice bunkers, chipping and putting greens, and a small, nine-hole par-three Little Course.

Golf Digest named Black Lake as one of top “upscale public courses.” And Michigan Golf described the course as a “classic” that includes “wide, well-groomed fairways [that] provide ample room for big hitters.” But some big hitters get special privileges at Black Lake. Tee times can be reserved up to two weeks in advance by UAW execs, compared to only three days for non-UAW duffers. Cost to play Black Lake is $95 per round.

Remember all the much-deserved bad press Detroit’s high-paid Big Three executives received last month when they flew in their corporate jets to beg Washington for a tax-paid bailout? Has anybody in Congress or the media bothered to ask UAW head Ron Gettelfinger about his union’s assets and perks like Black Lake Golf Club?

Visit the Black Lake Golf Club website here.

More from Michelle Malkin.

“If all we want are jobs, we can create any number — for example, have people dig holes and then fill them up again, or perform other useless tasks. Work is sometimes its own reward. Mostly, however, it is the price we pay to get the things we want. Our real objective is not just jobs but productive jobs — jobs that will mean more goods and services to consume.” –Milton Friedman

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John Hawkins: Economics Lessons For the Age of Obama.

Barack Obama and the Democratic Party seem to have fallen in love with the idea of “make work” jobs. In other words, they’re going to take money from taxpayers and then use it to “create green jobs,” work projects, and other marginally useful government programs. Then, to add insult to injury, these very same politicians who’ve taken the money out of working people’s pockets will pat themselves on their backs for being compassionate enough to put people to work.

What shouldn’t be missed is the other side of the equation: much of the money paid in taxes to the government would otherwise be spent, thereby creating jobs. Furthermore, since the government is less efficient than private industry and because in most cases, people are better able to fill their own needs with their own money than the government can, the “make work” job process is inherently inefficient.

That’s why one of the worst things the government can do, particularly in a recession, is to try to create “jobs programs.”

The federal government is inevitably slower, dumber, and less competent than private industry. Moreover, just about every truly catastrophic economic event that has occurred in the last century — from the depression to the savings and loan crisis to the current housing crisis — all have at their root government intervention in the market.

That’s why the partial nationalization of this country’s banks and auto industry should absolutely terrify people. There is absolutely nothing that should make anyone think that an “auto czar” or some other bureaucratic flunky who’s answerable to Congress would do anything to help make these businesses more viable over the long-term. It’s quite the opposite, actually.

Over the long haul, the more intimately our government is involved in the market, the more damage it will do to our economy.

Bloomberg: Obama Plans Largest Building Program Since 1950s.

Politico: Obama Unveils 21st Century New Deal.

Dick Morris: Obama’s Stimulus Plan Won’t Stimulate.

Wall Street Journal: Obama Stimulus Plan Approaching $1 Trillion.

Investor’s Business Daily: Prepackaged Failure.

Congressional Democrats are desperate to bail out the Big Three — but even more desperate to bail out the automakers’ unions. After all,the UAW spent more than $11 million in the last election cycle to elect Democrats. They’re owed.

In recent days, talk of a “prepackaged” bankruptcy has come to the fore. In such a case, the parties involved — shareholders, management, unions, creditors — would negotiate a kind of working settlement. The idea is to avoid a liquidation, while also getting access to the $34 billion in bailout funds the industry says it needs.

It’s not the worst idea. But it doesn’t stand a chance because the unions reject it out of hand. As UAW President Ron Gettelfinger put it, prepackaged bankruptcy is “not a viable option.” Translation: Unions would have to make big, and permanent, concessions.

That leaves the latest bright idea from Congress: a broad, federally mandated restructuring of the Big Three in exchange for financial help. Congress would in essence become the Big Three’s uber-manager, telling them how to become profitable again.

Excuse us, but are we supposed to believe that the same Congress responsible for next year’s estimated $1 trillion deficit can profitably run a market-sensitive company like a car manufacturer?

Or that the same Congress that sat on its hands as the financial meltdown unfolded and helped create the mess will know how to financially restructure America’s highly complex auto business?

Or that the people who just last year imposed $85 billion in new “efficiency” standards on a teetering industry will be savvy enough to run them anywhere but further into the ground?

These are not rhetorical questions. Preliminary results from our latest IBD/TIPP Poll show sentiment running 62% against a bailout for the automakers. With its own favorability at a subterranean 9%, lowest in history, Congress might want to think twice about it.

Los Angeles Times: UAW Gives Ground to Aid Big 3’s Chance for Bailout.

Amanda Carpenter: UAW “Needs” the Bailout, Has Money for TV Ads.

CNN: Six in 10 Oppose Auto Bailout, Poll Shows.

Investor’s Business Daily: Bail Out Bill Or Bail Out Joe?