The Daimler-Chrysler divorce was motivated in no small part as a way to offload the $18 billion in health benefits that Chrysler will one day owe UAW retirees. Those benefits currently add about $1,500 to the price of a car. As Alan Murray points out in Wednesday's "Wall Street Journal," Barack Obama's offer to bring relief to these costs had both union leaders and auto management in a thrall. Business lobbyists are hoping that a Democratic administration would spread the love. Health-care costs are the number one problem facing American industry today, according to the Business Roundtable. But instead of attacking the nettlesome problem of bringing those costs down (don't blame unions; they've been in sharp decline for 20 years), business leaders may turn to tax-payer bail-outs, which have fewer political problems. The Chrysler sale may turn out to be more of a landmark deal than many industry insiders appreciate.
Source: Wall Street Journal
