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Message: <blockquote data-quote="SoonerP226" data-source="post: 2150517" data-attributes="member: 26737">Without intervention by the US Gov't, GM and Chrysler would have folded; the credit markets were frozen, and certainly wouldn't have provided the multi-billion loans that GM and Chrysler needed to go through a "prepack" Chapter 11 reorganization. Without those loans, they were very likely looking at a Chapter 7 liquidation; if that had happened, the interconnected nature of the supplier networks would have brought the entire industry to a screeching halt. Ford's own estimate was that they would have been forced to close plants within two weeks due to a lack of parts--that's why Alan Mulally went to the Hill with the CEOs of GM and Chrysler. Don't get me wrong--I think we would have been better served by the Feds guaranteeing the loans for GM and Chrysler (bullying the banks into taking them if necessary) and allowing the Chapter 11 process to happen the way it's supposed to happen, rather than taking an ownership position, providing the loans directly, and screwing with the bankruptcy process, but without some involvement by the Feds, things were headed for a big catastrophic mess (even the GOP saw that--Sen. Bob Corker (R-TN) came up with the pre-packaged bankruptcy plan that the Dimocrats bastardized into what happened). It was primarily a problem of timing--if GM and Chrysler had figured out their problems earlier (or at all, but that's another discussion), they could've done something while the credit markets were still fully functional, and gov't involvement could have been avoided. (That's what saved Ford--Bill Ford realized that he was in over his head and hired a capable leader; the best thing Alan Mulally had going for him, after his innate leadership skills, was timing--he was able to arrange lines of credit for Ford while the credit markets were still functioning.)In the end, I do agree that they were willing to bail out GM and Chrysler primarily because of the union votes, but I don't think it would matter if every shop in the firearms industry were unionized--the hoplophobes have such an irrational fear of firearms that I doubt they'd care about the employment impacts if they even gave them any thought at all (which I'm pretty sure they don't).</blockquote>

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