GM: Wagoner Wont Take Private Jet To Cry Poverty

After catching flak for flying their million dollar private jets to Washington last week to cry poverty, GM finally gets the point:

A company spokesperson said, “We’ve gotten the message,” and that (Rick) Wagoner would not return to Washington on the corporate jet.

Thanks guys.

That it took a public outcry and criticism to make such a decision only epitomizes the ineptitude and hubris of management at the Big Three.  No wonder why these companies are bleeding cash and making a mockery of American industry. In the past three years alone, GM has racked up over $70 billion dollars in losses, and these morons have the gall to ask for more.  But of course, throwing billions of more taxpayer money into the hole is the right solution.  

Is it too much to ask that the automakers file for Chapter 11?  At least GM anyway?  Chapter 11 will allow the company to continue operating and renegotiate the onerous union contracts and pension plans that are suffocating the industry.  The union stranglehold on the auto industry is indeed a big problem, and is just one more of example of the flaws of forced social engineering in the private marketplace.  But management at some point, must be held accountable as well.

Rick Wagoner couldn’t care less. He’d rather pass the buck:

He expressed some frustration at the barrage of criticism — ranging from auto executives’ use of corporate jets to Detroit’s reliance on big trucks and SUVs — leveled during U.S. Senate and House hearings this week. He suggested that popular outrage over the nation’s $700-billion financial bailout has resulted in a “higher bar” for Detroit’s automakers to meet in order justify federal aid.

No surprise here. Wagoner is not a leader. In fact, he’s not new to making excuses for the poor financial management of his industry by him and his fellow CEOs. From 2005:

Rather than blame poor management for his company’s woes, General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner offered up contradictions and falsehoods to explain the automaker’s state of affairs in Tuesday’s Wall Street Journal. Although he acknowledged that GM lost a lot of money in 2005, Wagoner cited high gasoline prices, competition, lawsuit abuse, “unfair trading practices,” and remarkably GM’s own benevolence as the primary reasons for the company’s demise.

Notably, Wagoner said GM is “not looking for a bailout” in the same paragraph in which he said, “It’s critical that government leaders, supported by businesses, unions and all our citizens, forge policy solutions to the issues undercutting American manufacturing competitiveness.”

Idiots.

More from Ed Morrissey.