*By Justin Chermol and Carlo Versano*
When General Motors announced a major restructuring that would result in mass layoffs and plant closures, the American automaker managed to do what few others have: unite the left and right in anger and disappointment.
Rep. Debbie Dingell (D-MI) represents a suburban Detroit district that will be affected by the reductions. She told Cheddar in an interview Wednesday that she was surprised by the timing, given that the auto industry is cyclical. Both Democrats and Republicans think "they are the worst corporation in this country."
"They have no fans right now," she said.
GM's newest strategy is twofold: the company is shrinking its sedan footprint in response to market conditions and consumer tastes, as well as investing in an electric, self-driving future it's terming "Zero Crashes, Zero Emissions, Zero Congestion."
Ford ($F), GM's main American rival, announced in April that it will scale about 90 percent of its auto production to trucks, utilities, and commercial vehicles by 2020. The company went on to explain that it would discontinue four of its sedan models and invest more in autonomous technology.
Back in June, in a cautionary note, GM [wrote](https://assets.bwbx.io/documents/users/iqjWHBFdfxIU/rJBrNbApznVU/v0) to the Department of Commerce, warning increased tariffs could lead to a "smaller GM."
Despite its foresight, GM didn't cite tariffs as a reason for the layoffs in its statement Monday. Instead, CEO Mary Barra said almost the opposite ー that the economy was so strong that it would be preferable to make changes now rather than trying to restructure during a slowdown. Automakers learned that lesson the hard way during the financial crisis.
Dingell said that while she indicated to President Trump that she would support a "NAFTA 2.0" trade bill, she has changed her mind in the wake of GM's restructuring.
"I will not support a trade bill that lets that company put any more jobs in Mexico," she said. "We need to keep those jobs here in the United States."
After the announcement, [President Trump](https://twitter.com/realDonaldTrump/status/1067494680416407552) and Prime Minister [Justin Trudeau](https://twitter.com/JustinTrudeau/status/1067082236686753792?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1067082236686753792&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Fwww.cnn.com%2F2018%2F11%2F26%2Fbusiness%2Fgm-oshawa-plant%2Findex.html) both took to Twitter to call reductions in the U.S. and Canada a massive "disappointment." Since then, the two leaders have spoken on the phone to discuss the issue.
While pundits and industry analysts debate whether the era of the personally-owned car is coming to an end ー and perhaps where American automakers fall in the new mobility hierarchy ー the effects of GM's decisions will still weigh heavily on local communities that depend on it as the anchor business. And that, in turn, makes it a political issue for the president. President Trump dispatched his chief economic adviser Larry Kudlow to meet with Barra.
As for the future of the auto-industry, Rep. Dingell said she understands the harsh realities her constituents are facing: "It's no longer a car industry, its a mobility industry. And the mobility industry is changing."
"The model is going to change but you are still going to be building vehicles and there will be new jobs," she said.
Young Americans face a double burden from crushing student debt and the ballooned federal deficit that is the result of President Trump's tax cut, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi told Cheddar's J.D. Durkin in an interview that aired Wednesday. Pelosi called the economic position many millennials find themselves in, even as the economy remains strong, "unconscionable." "Republicans foisted onto future generations [an] economy that is unfair, that is not really lending itself to growth in a strong, predictable, confident, certain way," Pelosi said.
The newly appointed vice chairman of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, Rep. Joaquin Castro (D-Tex.), said he is "absolutely" concerned that Chinese telecommunication giant Huawei poses a threat to national security in an interview on Cheddar Tuesday.
Democratic Rep. Earl Blumenauer of Oregon is pushing forward for marijuana reform, introducing the aptly named House Resolution 420 to regulate marijuana much like alcohol was regulated post-Prohibition. "Ultimately we're going to be moving in that direction, allowing the states to be able to set up a regulatory system that meets their needs ー have their own approach in terms of taxation and distribution, just like alcohol," Blumenauer told Cheddar Tuesday. "
The cannabis business is budding across the United States, and one company is hoping to take hemp mainstream. Socati just announced a new $33 million round of funding. The company's CEO Josh Epstein talked to Cheddar about how that investment will help Socati expand is business.
President Trump's "Make America Great Again" cap is more than just a hat, it's a "symbol of us vs. them," Washington Post fashion editor Robin Givhan told Cheddar. Givhan penned a column last week about what the hat has come to mean in the years since it burst on the scene as a campaign accessory for Trump's 2016 presidential bid. The hat, she wrote, has become "a symbol of us vs. them, of exclusion and suspicion, of garrulous narcissism, of white male privilege, of violence and hate."
Between changes in the tax code and the government shutdown, H&R Block knows this year's tax season is likely to be stressful for many. That's why the company's introducing a slate of tools, some artificial intelligence-enabled, to help make it easier and more transparent to file. "This year we are introducing upfront, transparent pricing, so every single consumer will know what's it going to cost before I start," H&R Block CEO Jeff Jones told Cheddar.
These are the headlines you Need 2 Know for Tuesday, Jan. 29, 2019.
The battle of the billionaires may be heating up ahead of the 2020 presidential race, as former mayor and media mogul Michael Bloomberg took a swipe at ex-Starbucks CEO Howard Schultz after he announced a potential run for president as an independent during an interview on "60 Minutes" Sunday. The two billionaires are looking in part to capitalize on their corporate success to gain an edge against President Trump, who leveraged his business career to gain the presidency. "Anything is really possible at this point, and you don't want to ignore a white billionaire announcing a candidacy for president," Julia Manchester, reporter at The Hill, told Cheddar Monday. "We saw it happen in 2015 and \[Trump]\ won."
The U.S. Treasury on Monday announced sanctions against Venezuela's state-owned oil firm in an effort to undermine incumbent president Nicolás Maduro and reinforce support for interim president Juan Guaidó. Brett Bruen, a former diplomat and director of global engagement under President Obama, called the administration's decision a "rare bright spot" in Trump's foreign policy. "The Trump administration is holding firm to defend democracy, they are standing up for human rights, they are standing up for the rule of law," Bruen told Cheddar Monday.
Trump's political calculus to appeal to his base ー an older, whiter, more conservative demographic ー is coming at the expense of his popularity among millennials, said Kristen Soltis Anderson, a Republican pollster and author of "The Selfie Vote: Where Millennials Are Leading America." That poses a problem for the GOP as it seeks to broaden its tent in anticipation of a future when Donald Trump is not on the ballot.
