When President George Bush announced $17.4 billion for General Motors and Chrysler, it wasn’t so much of a bridge loan, it was more like bully tactics. The Bush bucks come with all sorts of ties, most of them around the UAW’s neck.

The loan is split into $13.4 billion now and another $4 billion later. GM and Chrysler will get the second installment in February –  only if they succeed in forcing workers to agree to accept slashed wages and work rules and auto retirees to agree to sink half of their retiree health care fund into company stock.

It’s a shot in the arm for those who hate labor. Meanwhile, for the banks that have received handouts from the Treasury Department’s $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program, there’s no bullying – there’s not even oversight. Asked by ABC news last week, how or if they’d spent the money, sixteen banks pulled a Palin. They simply refused to answer the question. How much have they spent on staff bonuses? The Government Accountability Office dug for an answer and found that “the standard agreement between Treasury and the participating institutions does not require that these institutions track or report how they plan to use, or do use, their capital investments.”

As someone who’s just returned from a boat trip, I can tell you, there’s no bailing out going on here. Some ships are being floated, and some are being sunk.

In other news today, the incoming Obama administration has announced that Vice President Joe Biden’s been tasked with protecting the interests of middle class and working Americans. It kind of makes you wonder what the President will be doing.

Biden or no Biden, when it comes to raising middle class and working wages and working conditions, there’s no substitute for union membership. Unfortunately, it’s just that ship that bully Bush’s torpedo loan wants to sink.

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