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Auto Bailout Voting Patterns Part II
As mentioned in the previous post on voting during the auto bailout, many of the Democrats voting against the bill represent districts that house foreign automotive plants, the potential benficiaries of the collapse of the Big Three. In this post, I’ll look at the existence of Big Three plants in the districts of the 32 Republicans who voted for the auto bailout. These numbers are a bit more definitive than the data on Democrats voting “No”:
Name State Plant in District Location/Plant in State Barton, Joe TX No Plant in State Buyer, Steve IN Yes Bedford, IN Camp, Dave MI Yes Michigan Capito, Shelley Moore WV Yes Martinsville, WV Castle, Mike DE Yes Wilmington, DE Ehlers, Vern MI Yes Michigan English, Phil PA No Plant in State Frelinghuysen, Rodney NJ No Hoekstra, Pete MI Yes Michigan Hunter, Duncan CA No Plant in State King, Pete NY No Plant in State Knollenberg, Joe MI Yes Michigan LaHood, Ray IL No Plant in State LaTourette, Steve OH No Plants operate in adjacent district Manzullo, Don IL No Plant in State McCotter, Thaddeus MI Yes Michigan McCrery, Jim LA Yes Shreveport, LA McHugh, John NY Yes Massena, NY Miller, Candice MI Yes Michigan Murphy, Tim PA Yes Pittsburgh, PA (represents suburbs of city) Porter, Jon NV No Plant in State Ramstad, Jim MN Yes Minneapolis, MN (represents suburbs of city) Regula, Ralph OH Yes Mansfield, OH Rogers, Mike MI Yes Michigan Ryan, Paul WI Yes Janesville, WI Smith, Chris NJ No Souder, Mark IN Yes Roanoke, IN Upton, Fred MI Yes Michigan Walsh, Jim NY No Plant in State Young, Don AK No Of the 32 Republicans voting for the auto bailout, 19 of them represent districts containing a Big Three plant (59.4%). When including lawmakers that represent states with Big Three plants in them that number jumps to 28 out of 32 (88%).
The real question is the Republican Senators that helped to squash the bill in the Senate. Despite Republicans touting their superior patriotism and their superior security credentials, their inferior anti-union agenda trumped everything. In fact, not a one of them gives a twit about the National Security issues involved in losing all American owned automotive production facilities. They apparently could care less which foreign companies make our military vehicles. I don’t know which way Pat Roberts came down on this issue but he and fellow traveler Senator Bombast from Kansas would be screaming bloody murder if airplane production facilities were in danger, unions or no unions.
6:26 pm on Dec 12, 2008