A 14-billion-dollar loan package aimed at bailing out the American auto industry from bankruptcy officially died on Thursday night, as it was rejected by the US Senate despite the Wednesday approval by the House of Representatives.
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This file photo shows new trucks are displayed for sale at a Ford dealership in Encinitas, California November 11, 2008. [Xinhua/Reuters]
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A procedural vote conducted in Senate ended up with only 52 yeas, formally strangling the legislation, whose passage needs 60 supporting votes.
The fate was actually decided well ahead of the vote, as Democrat and Republican senators, who hold 50 and 49 seats respectively, had failed to strike a bipartisan deal on the rescue plan, designed specifically for the so-called Detroit Three, namely General Motors (GM) Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC.
Republicans left a closed-door meeting where they balked at giving the automakers taxpayer-funded loans unless the powerful auto union agreed to cut wages next year to the level of those hired by Japanese carmakers, the auto Big-3's top competitors.
Republican Senator George V. Voinovich of Ohio, who is a strong bailout supporter, revealed that the union refused to make the cuts before 2011, as the auto workers' contract doesn't expire until then.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who was quite optimistic about a Senate consensus earlier in the day, said he was "terribly disappointed" at the failure of the bill.
"I dread looking at Wall Street tomorrow," he said. "It's not going to be a pleasant sight."
Stressing that the auto industry has a bearing on millions of jobs in the country, Reid added: "Christmas is approaching ...This will be a very very bad Christmas for many people."