Sen. Blanche Lincoln (D-Ark.) said Monday she will vote against the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA), marking a major Democratic defection to the effort to pass the highly-prized union bill.
"I cannot support that bill," Lincoln said during a speech before the Little Rock Political Animals Club, according to the Arkansas Business News. "Cannot support that bill in its current form. Cannot support and will not support moving it forward in its current form."
The Associated Press is also reporting that Lincoln announced her opposition to the bill, which is strongly desired by organized labor.
Lincoln's opposition would mark another major blow to the legislation, also known as "card check," after Sen. Arlen Specter (R-Pa.) announced he would vote against cloture and passage of the legislation. Without Lincoln, a centrist Democrat, supporting the measure, proponents of the organized labor legislation would need to flip two Republican votes in order to survive a filibuster.
Lincoln faces reelection in 2010, and although she has not drawn any banner Republican opponents yet, her choice to oppose EFCA -- like Specter's -- could have major political ramifications.
Rep. Sander Levin (D-Mich.) claimed Monday that he's "convinced" the Obama administration has not made any decisions to force GM and Chrysler into bankrupytcy, despite indications that the government and the companies are bracing for such a scenario.
"I'm convinced of that," Levin said on Bloomberg News when asked if the administration had made up its mind.
"They've made clear as to Chrysler that it's essential that Fiat and Chrysler make some sort of decision," he said. "As for GM, there's never been a decision that it must go into bankruptcy."
Levin also denied that the companies and Michigan workers are bracing for an eventual bankruptcy, emphasizing the preference by the companies and southeast Michigan lawmakers that the companies be allowed to restructure outside bankruptcy.
"They're not asking too much in this sense: there has to be continued restructuring," Levin explained. "There has to be some further major restructuring, and everyone has to be at the table."
President Bush should have forced General Motors and Chrysler into a prepackaged bankruptcy months ago, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Friday.
"I wish it was what President Bush had done six months ago. I think it is very important for the industry to survive," Pelosi said in an interview with the Detroit News and other journalists. The Speaker said that had the automakers been in a prepackaged bankruptcy half a year ago, the companies would be better off than they are now.
The Speaker also showed no remorse for ousted GM CEO Rick Wagoner, who many other lawmakers had praised for his work and characterized as a "sacrificial lamb."
"The performance of some of the management of the companies is stunning to me, so I'm not shedding a tear for Mr. Wagoner's departure," she said. "You lose billions of dollars a year. You get millions of dollars in salary and you get $20 million to leave."
Pelosi said that prepackaged bankruptcy is still the way to go, though it could have been accomplished earlier.
"People were saying a prepackaged bankruptcy would be the way to go" last fall, Pelosi said. "You could do it in weeks or a month and a half or two."
A group of minority business leaders has formed a group opposing the Employee Free Choice Act (EFCA, or "card check") a day after civil rights groups organized a campaign for the bill's passage.
The National Black Chamber of Commerce, the National Association of Black Hotel Owners Operators and Developers, and the Asian American Hotel Owners Association announced a campaign Friday to persuade members of the minority community to oppose EFCA.
"This is tantamount to a coup or power grab. Entrepreneurs don't take the risks and work hard hours to give it all up," said National Black Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Harry C. Alford. "And denying workers the right to secret ballot elections is undemocratic, plain and simple."
The announcement by the minority business groups sets up an interesting racial dynamic in the fight over the card check bill, which is strongly desired by organized labor, but strenuously opposed by business groups.
The civil rights groups announced the push for the organized labor bill to coincide with the anniversary of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s assassination.
The anti-EFCA minority business groups will announce their campaign in more detail in an April 6 press conference.
Bank of America will not have any difficulty paying back its loans to the Treasury Department and federal government, its CEO Kenneth Lewis indicated this morning.
"We would like to pay all of that back and not have that as an issue," Lewis said Thursday morning during an appearance on CNBC, noting though that he did not know Bank of America will have repaid all of its loans. "We made our first payment just a few weeks ago, $400 million. This is not a freebie."
Bank of America has been a particularly large recipient of federal funds, taking some $45 billion in loans to date.
"When we were with the president the other day, he basically said we need to make sure -- and I agree with this --
House Financial Services Committee Chairman (D-Mass.) said his Senate counterpart, Banking Comittee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), is being unfairly targeted by Republicans for his role in the financial crisis.
"Chris got a bad rap. He moved the ball on restrictions," Frank told The Daily Beast. "The administration had said to him, don
After GM CEO Rick Wagoner was forced out, the CEO of Bank of America chief executive should be next out the door, a major organized labor group said Tuesday.
The Service Employees International Union (SEIU) called on Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner to force out CEO Ken Lewis out at Bank of America.
The Congress and Obama administration should consider a stimulus package to boost automobile sales, Rep. Sander Levin (D-Mich.) argued Tuesday.
After talk of a second stimulus package for the economy by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) was quickly clamped down earlier this month, Levin floated the idea of a new package targeted at boosting sales for Detroit's struggling Big 3, which are looking to the federal government for support.
"The answer is yes, we very much should consider it," Levin, who represents a southeastern Michigan congressional district, told Fox Business Network.
"We have to make sure, though, that it's consistent with our international obligations," Levin added. "I think we can do just that."
Levin was asked specifically about the so-called "cash-for-clunkers" legislation sponsored by Sen. Diane Feinstein (D-Calif.), which would give consumers a $2,500-4,500 tax credit if they trade in their old car to purchase a new, more fuel-efficient automobile.
The government is the de facto owner of General Motors, Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.) asserted Tuesday.
A day after the government agreed to continue funding GM and Chrysler while they continue to rework their restructuring plans, Corker said the government has essentially stepped in to run the legendary manufacturer.
"I think one of the things that they have been right to do is to hesitate to step in and run one of these institutions," Corker said Tuesday on the Fox Business Network. "That is not what happened yesterday. Let's face it: the U.S. government owns the General Motors company, de facto."
Corker, a leading Republican voice during congressional debates over whether to bail out the companies, did acknowledge a double standard between the treatment of Detroit and Wall Street, saying the government should "absolutely" be tougher on financial firms on goverment support.
"I have from day one felt that we should be much tougher on the banking industry," he said. "And the fact is that Tim Geithner's going to come forth with what I hope is a very tough stress test for these banks. He's doing that right now."
"I think that we have just been metering out taxpayer dollars to these institutions, and not asking for tough decisions to be made," Corker added. "So there is somewhat of a double standard."
Former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney (R) backed the plan for GM and Chrysler put forth yesterday by President Obama, the candidate Romney may face in the 2012 presidential election.
"I think a lot of people expected the president just to cave, write a check, and just hope for the better," Romney said Tuesday morning on CNN. "I think he's expressing some backbone on this."
Romney grew up in Michigan, where his father was governor and, at one time, chairman of a now-defunct auto company. The former 2008 presidential candidate, though, was also sure to tout his own calls for bankruptcy last year, when Chrysler and GM first approached the government seeking support.
"That's something I think he should have said months ago," Romney claimed. "There were a number of us who said bankruptcy or a bankruptcy-like process was something that was needed to get GM and Chrysler on their feet again."
Romney, who won the Michigan Republican primary during the 2008 nominating process, called for the use of the "club" of bankruptcy to force the restructuring of the state's native industry.
"If the parties want to do it voluntarily -- and apparently, at this stage, it's looking like they haven't been able to -- then you're going to have to have that kind of a club to be able to have these companies restructure their excessive costs," he asserted.
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