...Bradley Rubin of BNP Paribas said the benefits have to be weighed against the industry's weaker outlook.

"If they can get 20 percent, that would be nirvana," he said. "It will take some costs out, but considering the prospects for auto sales in '08, I don't know if it will be enough to offset that."
Last week, General Motors Corp. announced it was extending buyouts to 46,000 more hourly workers in the United States.

Addressing reporters Tuesday at the Washington Auto Show, Chrysler LLC President Jim Press declined to say whether his company would extend buyouts to more workers this year.

"We sure hope we can avoid that," Press said, noting that Chrysler announced plans to cut some 10,000 factory jobs after its contract with the UAW was approved in November. "(But) you never know where the economy is going to wind up going."

No sense in kicking them when they're down.  Let them waste as much energy as you can trying to get back to their feet and then lay into them again.  Should happen sometime around the second Tuesday in November.

Or maybe not.  WJR has now uploaded a copy of Frank Beckmann's Monday interview with Speaker Dillon in which he questions him about Right Michigan's report from the Soaring Eagle.

Dillon claims that my source "misreported it a bit."  Turns out he doesn't like the gas tax.  Doesn't like it one bit.  It's just that road funding is down lately and we need to get that kick-started but he's not a fan of the gas tax at all.  Which is interesting since he told the good folks at MITA that a vote on a gas tax was "probable" but not until after the November elections.  Specifically he said that he'd bring it to a vote after the House enters lame-duck.

That report was confirmed in yesterday's edition of MIRS by Senior Capitol Correspondent Tim Skubick.  Dillon might have claimed that Right Michigan "misreported" his statement but Skubick, the man who was on stage with him when he spoke on the subject, offers the same account as my source.

I made a call to the good folks at MITA on Monday to ask how I could obtain an audio or video copy of the program to clear up any confusion that Andy Dillon might be trying to create.  (Side note, if I'd said what he said I'd be trying to create confusion about it too.)  I received a call back yesterday afternoon and was told that MITA supports increased road funding, however that might be achieved, including through the implementation of a gas tax increase, and because they viewed Dillon's admission as potentially damaging to that particular political motive they would not be able to provide me with a copy of their program.  But I should call them back if I ever need anything else.  Especially if it's something on which our politics merge.  (I give them credit, at least, for being up front and honest.)

Thankfully the reporter who was right there watching the whole discussion unfold was able to verify the witness account.  Even if the rest of the MSM sticks their head in the sand and pretends it never happened.  Imagine just for a moment if Mike Bishop had made the exact same statement... every reporter in Lansing would be focusing on Bishop's statement and it would be the subject of unflattering editorial page headlines across the State.  A liberal says he won't raise your taxes before you go to the polls but he will afterwards and it gets largely ignored.  

That, ladies and gentlemen, is why the advent of the blogosphere and the rapidly growing Right Roots are such an important part of the debate.  We're able to cut through the liberal media filter and actually report the facts.  A novel concept, I know.  Of course it goes both ways... we can and will tell the truth all day long but that will never stop the regressisphere from doing their best to spin and distort.

And boy are they spinning away on this one.  They're calling this Craig DeRoche's gas tax and claiming it's a Republican plan and scheme.  So lets put that one to bed right now.  DeRoche did indeed discuss a gas tax hike some months ago.  But Craig DeRoche is not the Speaker of the House.  He can't bring bills up for a vote.  And he can't, by fiat, decide that he'll wait until after the voters have gone to the polls to hold a politically dangerous vote in the House Chamber.

While I disagree wholeheartedly with the entire gas tax hike concept, sponsored by a Republican or a Democrat there's a fundamental difference here that the left is attempting to make us ignore.  DeRoche, months ago, in the clear, bright, illuminating light of day made a politically toxic suggestion because he thought it might be the right thing to do.  Andy Dillon, on the other hand, recognized the toxicity of the issue and shelved it but then slipped and told a pro-tax-hike organization that he would not be holding a vote on the hike before the general election when his Democrat caucus could be held responsible for their votes but would hold a vote under the cover of darkness once his members were safely out of the reach of the voters.

DeRoche can't call for a vote.  That's the privilege of the Speaker of the House.  And does Dillon ever plan on holding a vote to raise your taxes.  Just not until after you've already cast your vote to send his vulnerable members back to office.

Dillon's chamber.  Dillon's decision to pull a fast one on Michigan voters before gouging Michigan motorists.  

Frankly I don't know what the left is all in a tizzy over.  This is the same House Speaker who claimed after passing the record breaking $2.4 billion democrat tax hike last fall that:

"Basically, this entire package was delivered by Democrats." Detroit News, October 2, 2007.

You think we aren't paying high enough taxes.  Embrace that opinion.  But embrace it in the light of day where voters have the right to judge it for themselves.