Below The Beltway

Earlier today, it seemed as though the auto bailout was all but dead in the face of growing Republican opposition, but reports now seem to indicate that Democratic leaders aren’t giving up yet:

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Prospects for an auto industry bailout revived in the U.S. Senate on Thursday as surprise negotiations on a compromise moved forward and a vote was possible later in the day.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said on the Senate floor that the deal, if struck, “would overwhelmingly pass” the chamber that just hours ago seemed resigned to sending the automakers back to Detroit empty-handed.

The scenario at the core of the possible compromise was proposed by Sen. Bob Corker, a Tennessee Republican, who would grant loans under stricter conditions than favored by Democrats and the White House.

“Good faith negotiations are going on as we speak,” Reid said.

And the terms, it seems, are basically the same ones proposed by Tennessee Senator Bob Corker:

[Corker's proposal] would impose even tougher requirements on the automakers than the bill approved by the House, and it would mandate the “auto czar” overseeing the rescue plan for the federal government to force the companies into bankruptcy should they fail to meet the requirements.

Under his plan, which was the subject of intense negotiations with Democrats, the automakers would be required by March 31 to cut their debt obligations by two-thirds — an enormous sum given that G.M. alone has more than $60 billion in debt.

The automakers would also be required to cut wages and benefits to match the average hourly wage and benefits of Nissan, Toyota and Honda employees based in the United States, and the companies would have to impose equivalent work rules. The plan would bar any pay for idled workers other than “customary severance pay.”

As Leslie Carbone notes, the Corker plan is still a bailout because, even with all those condition, it still involves giving $ 14 billion in taxpayer dollars to companies that have shown no inclination for making wise business decisions.

For that reason alone, it’s unacceptable, but there’s something about the Corker plan that makes it even worse than what the House passed yesterday in my mind. There is quite simply something fundamentally wrong with the idea that 100 Senators and 435 Congressman are setting “benchmarks” that private companies must meet, deciding what acceptable wages levels are, restricting their rights to petition the government, and even putting their advertising budgets under government control.

Not only is the Corker plan a bailout, it’s also an even greater imposition of state corporatism than anything we’ve ever seen before. It would give the Federal Government, represented by a self-described “car czar” unprecedented control over a huge segment of the American economy, and anyone who thinks that power will be surrendered easily is kidding themselves.

If Bob Corker’s plan is the Republican Party’s idea of an alternative, then they’re even more intellectually dead than I thought they were.