Today, Ford announced that it would cut 25,000-30,000 jobs as part of a plan to save itself from ruin. This represents "20 percent to 25 percent of Ford's North American work force of 122,000 people." Ford also plans to "idle 14 facilities by 2012 as part of a restructuring designed to reverse a $1.6 billion loss last year in its North American operations."Not good, and you know what? It's largely the Republicans' fault. Why do I say this? Because, very simply, two of the main factors killing Ford - skyrocketing health care costs and high gas prices - are the direct result of Republican policy failures. Health care? Here's Ford's Chief Executive, William Clay Ford, Jr., on the issue:
...some of the key issues are bigger than any one company or any one industry...First of all, healthcare. We have the highest health care costs of any major nation, and those costs keep increasing rapidly. The United States spent an estimated $1.7 trillion on healthcare in 2003 alone. That represents over 15 percent of our GDP. During the four-year period through 2003, health insurance premiums increased by 11.4 percent a year, compared to 2.2 percent for overall inflation. This is a pace we cannot sustain.
In 2000, we paid $2 billion for employee health care. In 2003, those costs rose to $3.2 billion. That adds about $1000 to the price of every car and truck we build in America.
Right, so why don't we have national health care in this country? This is a complicated question, and Democrats have to take some of the blame too. However, Republicans bear the lion's share of the fault here, no question. Remember the "Harry and Louise" ads back in 1993? The ones that helped kill any chance for universal health care in this country? Those were sponsored by industry groups and masterminded by their PR guru, Blair G. Childs, who has given large sums of money to Republican PACs and candidates.
Universal health care was also killed by a Republican-orchestrated media campaign, including daily rants by Rush Limbaugh to his tens of millions of listeners. In the end, this coalition of Republicans and the health care industry killed any chance for passage of universal health care coverage in America for over a decade now. And that, in large part, has resulted in the massive competitive disadvantage - and the layoffs announced today by Ford - of the US auto industry. Great job, Republicans...so business friendly!
Second, rising oil prices. Again, Democrats aren't blameless here, but Republicans have been in power for a long time now and we don't have any energy policy - none whatsoever - in this country. The key to a serious U.S. policy aimed at reducing our energy costs would, of course, involve a massive push for energy efficiency technologies and alternatives to oil. Have we had any of that under the Bush Administration? Of course not. How about a serious effort to rapidly increase U.S. auto fuel economy standards, or to increase the share of hybrid cars using tax credits and other government incentives? You must be kidding.
Instead, we've had a Republican Congress more concerned with the miniscule amount of oil (perhaps 1/20 of U.S. oil consumption at peak production - involved in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge. And we've had the pie-in-the-sky, way over-the-horizon (if ever), underfunded program to develop hydrogen-powered vehicles. Oh, and another problem with the wonderful "hydrogen economy:" it requires FOSSIL FUELS, like OIL, to supply the energy needed to split water's hydrogen atoms from its oxygen atoms. Wonderful idea.
So, there you have it. Another day, another 30,000 jobs lost in the Republican economy. Remember that when you go to the polls this November.