A reader notices an irony in the UAW’s statement:

the UAW was prepared to agree that any restructuring plan should ensure that the wages and benefits of workers at the domestic automakers should be competitive with those paid by the foreign transplants. But we also recognized that this would take time to work out and implement, using attrition programs to allow the companies to hire new workers at the lower wage and benefit rates. Unfortunately, Senate Republicans insisted that this had to be accomplished by an arbitrary deadline. This arbitrary requirement was not imposed on any other stakeholder groups.

So, presuming the Senate Democrats agreed with this thinking, could they explain why “arbitrary deadlines” are unacceptable for bringing U.S. automaker wages in line with competitors, but okay for a withdrawal from Iraq?

Beyond that, don’t the automakers face their own “arbitary deadline” of when their cash runs out?