Left Wing Lunacy

It took president Bush nearly a year to admit that we are in a recession. Irregardless of when recession began, it is undeniable that we are in a financial crisis, a crisis which spans industries as the recent request for emergency loans by the three big national auto makers can attest to. Along the way some facets of American manufacturing beginning to succumb to the downard financial pressures and it is likely the numbers of failing companies will grow large in the future. The people are angry, understandably so, especially when we are asked yet again to save another industry with public funds.

Now, the governor of Illinois, democrat Rod Blagojevich, is involving the state in a dispute between a window and door-making company and its union, after the company decided to close its doors and reneg on the retirement packages after being denied a line of credit by Bank of America, N.A. Rather than offer a real solution, the Illionois governor has attacked Bank of America for its unwillingness to provide a lince of credit to a failing business, citing the bank's acceptance of $25 billion of the financial bailout package.

Illinois governor cuts off Bank of America after Chicago factory-worker sit-in

Showing solidarity with workers staging a sit-in over unpaid wages at a dying Chicago factory, Illinois' governor Monday lashed out at the bank that cut off the firm's funding.

Gov. Rod Blagojevich told all state agencies to suspend business with Bank of America immediately.

He said some of the billions in bailout money the bank got from taxpayers to stay afloat should be used to pay the workers' severance and accrued vacation.

Bank of America, which does billions in business with Illinois, had no immediate comment.

Cheers erupted at the shuttered Republic Windows and Doors, factory where 200 workers have been holed up all weekend, after the governor's announcement.

The workers — many of whom have toiled for the company for years — have refused to leave until they get the parting package they were promised.

In refusing to budge, they have become national symbols for the thousands of other American workers who have been pink-slipped as the economy sours.

"We never expected this," said factory worker Melvin Maclin, vice president of the union local that represents the workers. "We expected to go to jail."

...

After the unionized employees staged this sit in, Bank of America representatives, company representatives, and union leaders have agreed to meet and dicuss any options available. Thanks to the arm twisting of gov. Blagojevich who is portraying the bank as the villain, not the company executives, or the union for that matter. This type of interfernce is quite similar to the government's enactment of the Credit Reinvestment Act which forced banks to lend to people with high credit risk, albeit Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

Why should a business, who may not have needed to take the bailout money, should be penalized for not wanting to take a risk in lending to a company which may not be able to repay any of its loans? Unfortunately, the top four banks which did not need any bailout funds were forced to take these funds by the Paulson plan, seeing how consesus in the financial industry was key to the bailout plan's success. In essence, the banks would be forced to share the same burden to ensure that no one bank would monpolize the industry.

Some things just don't make sense. I used to see unions in a different light before all this, given my relative young age, but now unions seems to be part of the problem in American industries. These unions have done a diservice to the people they represent by forcing an increase in company fixed costs specifically in artificially higher wages than the markets would offer and long -term retirement packages.

Yet in the grand scheme of things, Bank of America can afford not to do business in Illinois. The question is, can Illionis afford not to do business with Bank of America? If they strongarm a bank of that size, I wonder what other banks gov. Blagojevich will threaten? For a regional economy to do well, as is the case in the state of Texas, businesses must be left to their own devices. While the Texas economy has prospered for the past decade, many midwestern economies have declined. Among many properties Texas is a right-to-work state, with union memebership being much lower than in other states, all the while being a business friendly state. Unfortunately for us Texans and other well to do states, we will wind up paying for the follies of our midwestern states.