Auto plants at capacity; still no apology from bailout foes

Once again, we see further proof of what a catastrophic mistake it would have been if the ideologues in Congress had prevailed and no rescue loans were provided to General Motors and Chrysler.

Suddenly, the auto industry has gone from a rebound to an outright boom. Automakers are pushing factories and workers to the limit as they try to meet burgeoning demand for new vehicles. At some plants, workers have been put on a weekly 60-hour work schedule.

In fact, the Big Three automakers biggest problem now is whether they should build new plants as their current facilities max out, according to USA Today.

Some plants are adding third work shifts. Others are piling on worker overtime and six-day weeks. Ford Motor and Chrysler Group are cutting out or reducing the annual two-week July shutdown at several facilities, including at the Chrysler Sterling Heights Assembly Plant, to add thousands of vehicles to their output.

The reason for this flurry of activity is a big jump in demand. The new auto sales estimates for 2012 are at 14.3 million vehicles, compared to 12.8 million last year. That’s still well short of the peak years in the late 1990s when sales were at about 16 million.

But imagine if this opportunity had come and most of the nation’s auto plants and parts suppliers were closed because the bailout was rejected in Washington.

Idled factories, idled workers, closed dealerships -- and the Japanese and Koreans swooping in to take over all that new manufacturing and sales activity.

That would have been painfully catastrophic.

All those on Capitol Hill – the conservative purists and those Southern senators protecting their state’s foreign auto plants – should never be forgiven for what they tried to do to the industry, to the state of Michigan, and to Macomb County.

Those who said loaning money to GM and Chrysler would be “like pouring money down a rat hole” almost made one of the biggest mistakes in the history of Congress.