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Politics : Politics for Pros- moderated -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Oral Roberts who wrote (284027)	12/12/2008 2:44:57 PM
From: Ruffian	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 793990

Corker: WH intervention killed auto bill By Alexander Bolton Posted: 12/12/08 02:12 PM [ET] Sen. Bob Corker (Tenn.), the lead Republican negotiator on a last-minute effort to bail out U.S. automakers, said a deal might have been possible Friday had the White House not intervened. Corker said that Ron Gettelfinger, the president of the United Auto Workers (UAW), has halted discussions after receiving indication from White House officials that they will use funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) to save U.S. automakers. Senate Republicans' failure to reach a deal with Democrats and their union allies has cast doubt on whether carmakers will be required to accept restructuring conditions they agreed to Thursday. A GOP senator involved in Thursday’s negotiations said that the UAW had agreed to reduce the bulk of their outstanding debt through an equity swap with bondholders and to accept corporate stock as 50 percent of the payments to union accounts for retired and disabled workers. Those concessions may not happen because Senate Republican and Democratic negotiators could not reach agreement on a third major issue: reducing employee labor and benefit costs of U.S. automakers to par with foreign competitors. Corker told reporters Friday that Democrats and Republicans might have still reached agreement if talks had continued. He said, however, that changed when White House officials indicated they were poised to tap TARP to save the automakers. “We would have had a whole lot better chance of agreement if the White House hadn’t said they’re getting ready to put money in,” Corker told a group of reporters after his press conference. Corker said he had put a call in to Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and would urge Paulson to attach to the relief at least two of the conditions Democrats and Republicans had agreed to Thursday. Corker declined to say that Republicans had missed an opportunity by not yielding on autoworkers' wages, the issue that scuttled the bailout package. He said many Democrats also wanted to see the industry required to reduce its debt, such as through equity swaps with bondholders and/or equity contributions to Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Associations. White House officials sought to reassure the financial markets shortly before they were scheduled to open Friday. “[G]iven the current weakened state of the U.S. economy, we will consider other options if necessary — including use of the TARP program — to prevent a collapse of troubled automakers,” said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino in a statement issued minutes before markets opened. Corker said that after Gettelfinger received indication that federal aid was coming, he did not see a need to continue negotiations.