The CEOs of the major automakers got "spanked" when they visited Congress yesterday.
Alan Mulally, CEO of Ford, mentioned that his company let 51,000 people go and shut down 17 plants.
According to Rick Wagoner, CEO of General Motors, “We want to continue to play the vital role that we’ve played for America for the past hundred years, but right now in today’s circumstances we can’t do it alone”.”
So what did these guys do? They went in front of Congress yesterday…and got “spanked”.
Why? Because their lack of frugality came to light when Congressman Brad Sherman asked the CEOs if they flew into Washington on one of the commercial airlines and it came to pass that each of them had flown in via private jet. These executives who are in charge of companies that are supposedly on the verge of bankruptcy had come to Washington to ask for $25 billion to bail them out and had come on their company’s private jets. The cost for taking a flight from Detroit to Washington? $20,000!!!!
Sure. These CEOs had apparently done a lot to curb costs. They renegotiated union contracts. Stated they had started producing more fuel-efficient/alternative-energy cars. That they needed the loan to prevent them from filing bankruptcy, which would mean 3 million people would lose their jobs. But why couldn’t these guys curb their own costs and use one of the commercial airlines? For a roundtrip flight on Northwest from Detroit to Washington DC, they could have spent a measly $288 for coach or $837 for first class. But NO! It was a $20,000 trip each.
I guess after yesterday’s failed attempt to get any money, these executives are choosing NOT to use their private jets to attend this week’s annual auto show in Los Angeles. Good choice. But I think that decision came a little too late.
Check out THIS article by a recent Presidential hopeful that I found mighty interesting.
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