Getbig.com: American Bodybuilding, Fitness and Figure
Getbig Main Boards => Politics and Political Issues Board => Topic started by: Soul Crusher on May 20, 2009, 06:12:35 PM
-
Welch Criticizes Obama on Handling Chrysler Bankruptcy
Share | Email | Print | A A A
By Tom Moroney
May 20 (Bloomberg) -- Jack Welch, former chief executive officer of General Electric Co., criticized the government- backed bankruptcy of Chrysler LLC for favoring unions at the expense of creditors and said President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus programs will cause budget deficits.
“I don’t particularly like where he’s taking us,” Welch said, referring to Obama, during an interview yesterday at the Boston Convention Center. Welch, 73, who led GE from 1981 to 2001, was a guest speaker at the New England Business Xpo.
“To get the money he needs, he has to have a fake budget,” Welch said. “He’s fooling people about how we’re going to have the top line support the programs in the middle without enormous taxes and some programs not going.”
White House spokesman Reid Cherlin had no immediate comment late yesterday.
Obama has defended the $17 billion in cuts he’s making in a $3.55 trillion budget against criticism from lawmakers by saying any savings, large or small, “add up.” The administration’s plan eliminates or reduces 12 federal programs, from a $1 million Christopher Columbus fellowship foundation to $91 million for a nuclear waste repository in Nevada. The reductions represent one-half of 1 percent of the entire budget.
Welch praised Obama’s communication skills, particularly his speech at the University of Notre Dame on Sunday. Still, he said he’s concerned about some of Obama’s programs.
Among them is the restructuring plan for Chrysler LLC. The automaker and the government plan to use bankruptcy to transfer Chrysler’s best assets, such as its Jeep brand, into a new company with streamlined costs. The Chrysler workers pension fund will get a 55 percent stake.
Chrysler filed for bankruptcy in April after a group of secured creditors refused to participate in a $2.25 billion buyout for a $6.9 billion Chrysler loan. The government said the loan buyout would have prevented the bankruptcy, and Obama criticized the lenders for speculating at taxpayers’ expense.
Creditors’ Rights ‘Trashed’
“I didn’t like the terms,” Welch said. “The creditors’ rights were trashed and the unions got 55 percent of the company.”
Welch said the president’s plan to implement the nation’s first national standard for greenhouse-gas emissions was sound.
“This emissions plan is not one that gives me great trouble,” he said.
Welch said he’s optimistic about an economic recovery and looking closely at the housing market for signs as to when it may begin.
“I want (new) housing starts to go down, down, down,” he said. “It’s the only way to get housing prices stabilized, and we need to stabilize housing prices.”
Housing starts slid 13 percent to an annual rate of 458,000, a lower level than forecast, Commerce Department figures showed today in Washington. The drop was led by a 46 percent tumble in multifamily starts, a category that tends to be more volatile. Housing starts fell 10.8 percent to an annual rate of 510,000 in March.
“While the market didn’t like it -- housing starts going down again -- I like it,” Welch said.
To contact the reporter on this story: Tom Moroney in Boston tmorrone@bloomberg.net
________________________ ____________________
Chrysler down - GM next.