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White House Stiffs Automakers Again

By Joe Benton
ConsumerAffairs.com

June 22, 2006

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U.S. automakers are on ice again at the White House, this time until July.

The Big Three had originally planned to meet with President Bush May 18. The meeting was rescheduled until June 2, then postponed.

While the automakers struggle to get their message heard inside the White House they continue to smart from a comment Bush made recently in the Wall Street Journal. The president said that the Big Three need to build "relevant" vehicles.

The automakers have been trying to meet with Bush to discuss soaring health-care costs, energy and trade issues and plan to follow the summit with an announcement about their commitment to producing more flexible fuel vehicles.

The Detroit CEOs want to discuss a proposal to revise pensions that will cost GM and Ford billions of dollars. They want improved access to alternative fuels at the pump and some Washington help with what the automakers call currency manipulation by the Chinese and Japanese central banks.

Despite the White House delays, the auto industry Washington offensive is in high gear.

GM's chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner will testify before the U.S. Senate special committee on aging on July 13 about health care costs at GM.

Wagoner is fond of pointing out that GM spends more on health care per vehicle than on steel, $1,500 per vehicle produced.

GM is the largest single private purchaser of health care in the United States. The company spent $5.4 billion last year in providing health care current and former employees.

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