Does The Word 'Hypocrisy' Ring A Bell?

That's a line from Detroit Free Press columnist Mitch Albon's latest take on the Congressional hearings re: the looming (or is it receding) big three bailout.

Now, I'm not normally a fan of Mitch, but he does a great job of describing, clearly and succinctly, what I've been saying for a while -- the government is oh-so-quick to help out their friends in the financial services industry, but not-so-fast when it comes to companies that actually make things (especially when, as in the case of Sen. Shelby -- the target of the 'hypocrite' tag from the title -- your state is stuffed with foreign automakers who stand to benefit from a Big Three stumble).

"...makes me wonder why you're so against our kind of business? The kind we do in Detroit. The kind that gets your fingernails dirty. The kind where people use hammers and drills, not keystrokes. The kind where you get paid for making something, not moving money around a board and skimming a percentage.

You've already given hundreds of billions to banking and finance companies -- and hardly demanded anything. Yet you balk at the very idea of giving $25 billion to the Detroit Three. Heck, you shoveled that exact amount to Citigroup -- $25 billion -- just weeks ago, and that place is about to crumble anyhow.

Does the word "hypocrisy" ring a bell?"

A couple of other noteworthy quotes:

"AIG lost hundred of billions in credit default swaps -- which no one can explain and which make nothing, produce nothing, employ no one and are essentially bets on failure.

And you don't demand a paragraph from it?
...
(Automaking) is a business that has been around for more than a century. And some of its problems are because of that, because people get used to certain wages, manufacturers get used to certain business models. It's easy to point to foreign carmakers with tax breaks, no union costs and a cleaner slate -- not to mention help from their home countries -- and say "be more like them."
...
America can't be a country of lawyers and financial analysts. We have to manufacture."

Definitely worth a read.