If GM fails, blame UAW

The ball is really rolling now. All the pigs are lining up at the government trough to get a piece of that handout ... er ... bailout.

American Express is going so far as to redesignate itself as a bank so it can get a piece of the pie. Automakers, never one to pass up a free handout, are also throwing out scary, though completely ridiculous, doomsday predictions about what would happen if they fail.

Give me a break.

Such companies aren't too big to fail. They are just too big. Let them fail. Big companies fail and smaller, leaner companies that can do it better, faster and cheaper will step in to take their places.

Besides, it is the unions that long ago destroyed the American auto industry, not the current economic downturn (crisis is excessively overblown for what is happening in the economy). You can't keep putting the screws to the company and not expect consequences.

The average compensation for a laborer for one of the Big Three automakers is $73.20 per hour. At Toyota, that average is $48. America's automakers are the most overpaid workers in the world. If you don't believe me, consider this. The average hourly compensation for professional workers is $47.57. The average for all workers is $28.48.

However, there is another reason to oppose the bailouts other than the lack of economic sense. Government bailouts of private companies are simply illegal. The Constitution does not allow the federal government to spend our tax dollars bailing out private companies.

American politicians used to understand and respect that.

A short history lesson is in order.

The U.S. Constitution is a limiting document operating under the Enumerated Powers Doctrine. Simply put, that means the federal government has no power that is not specifically listed in the Constitution. It is not a living document that changes with the times. It means what it says.

James Madison, considered the father of the Constitution, understood this very well. During the Constitutional Convention, he argued that Congress should be given the power to construct canals. He rightly believed that canals would promote commerce between the states. The idea failed and no such provision was included.

By time he was president, the United States had grown dramatically and the lack of roads and canals were crippling the nation's economic growth. He urged the Congress to pass a constitutional amendment allowing the federal government to construct national roads and canals.

The Congress decided simply to pass a law providing that profits from the National Bank be used to build roads and canals.

While there was no stronger proponent of canals and roads than Madison, his last official act as president was to veto the so-called Bonus Bill. He understood such a bill to be unconstitutional despite his desire to see the roads and canals built.

Twenty years earlier, as a congressman, Madison, arguing against aid for French refugees, said he could not "undertake to lay [his] finger on that article of the federal Constitution which granted a right to Congress of expending, on objects of benevolence, the money of their constituents."

Even as late as 1887, President S. Grover Cleveland vetoed a bill appropriating $10,000 in federal aid to buy seeds for Texas farmers suffering from drought because he could "find no warrant for such an appropriation in the Constitution."

That kind of character is what is lacking in Washington these days.

It is simply illegal and unconstitutional to harm Americans by taking their money and giving it to businesses simply because the owners and managers of those businesses failed to do their jobs properly.

It is especially disgusting to give our hard-earned money to automakers that have overpaid their employees for years while the rest of us paid the price.

It is time to stop these bailouts, and they certainly shouldn't be extended to the auto industry.

As for all those automakers who might soon be out of a job if the Big Three automakers fail, they have no one to blame except the United Auto Workers union and themselves for their dogmatic support of unions.

It looks as though the chickens are finally coming home to roost in Detroit.

You can comment on this column and other issues on Lucente's blog at www.lucente.org. You can also listen to Lucente on "Talk with Ron Williams" at 3:10 p.m. Thursdays on WZOQ (940 AM) or at www.espnlima.com.