December 26th, 2008 2:59 pm
'Sicko' role propels Adrian Campbell Montgomery to seek universal healthcare

By Kristin Longley / Flint Journal

HARTLAND TOWNSHIP, Michigan -- Adrian Campbell Montgomery couldn't be more thankful for her five minutes with "Sicko."

The Flint Journal profiled the cancer survivor in May, when she used her role in the Michael Moore documentary as a political springboard to run for a Board of Commissioners seat in northern Livingston County.

She lost the election to Republican David Domas, but Montgomery now says the publicity allows her to raise awareness for what she considers her life's mission: universal health care for all U.S. citizens.

"It's a story that we hear all too often," said Montgomery, 26, a Hartland High School graduate. "People can't afford health care. I've been there once, and I don't want to go there again."

Montgomery is using every opportunity to speak publicly about health insurance and the war in Iraq and has traveled to Boston, New York and Washington, D.C. She even bleached her hair as part of a fundraiser for an anti-war group.

And despite her efforts to the contrary, Montgomery and her daughter, Aurora, 5, are again without health insurance.

In 2007, moviegoers watched the then-single mother make a run to the Canadian border in "Sicko" to illegally seek medical attention after being denied coverage for cervical cancer treatments.

Her health insurance horror story was one of several featured in Moore's documentary, which often blasted the inadequacies of the U.S. health care system compared with those in other nations.

Montgomery later married and was insured through her husband, Randall, until his employer recently dropped worker coverage because of the economy.

"I pray every single day that (Aurora) doesn't get sick," Montgomery said. "A move to Canada most likely will happen. I don't want to leave, but I might not have a choice."

The daughter of two UAW retirees, Montgomery said she comes from a typical blue-collar family struggling to make ends meet. Her parents lost their home to foreclosure, her sister has $30,000 in medical debt and her brother, Lance Campbell, a 2007 Hartland High School graduate, serves in Iraq.

She's working for a promotions company based in Windsor, Ontario, and is an active supporter of the national group American Patients United, which was started by a fellow "Sicko" star.

She's also writing a book and hopes to start a reality TV show about Canada.

As far as another political run in the future?

"It's possible," she said. "Anything's possible since my five minutes of fame in that movie.

"This truly has been a life-changing experience for me, and I am going to keep on fighting 'til every American is covered under Medicare for all and until all our troops are home."

November 21st, 2008 4:14 pm
Michael Moore has mixed feelings about a Big 3 bailout

By Mike Wilkinson / Detroit News

If you thought a high-profile, avowed fan of the Michigan autoworker would leap at the chance to support the Big Three's clamor for a Washington bailout, think again.

Michael Moore, the Flint native turned lightning-rod filmmaker, has mixed feelings about the money, the auto industry and the company, General Motors, that helped launch his film career.

In an interview Wednesday with CNN's Larry King, Moore criticized the automakers for ignoring the desires of consumers, building instead bigger, more profitable cars as foreign automakers pursued both SUVs and more fuel-efficient sedans and compacts.

"They've never listened to the consumers," Moore said. "They've just gone about it their own wrong way. I'll tell you, you know, I'm of mixed mind about this bailout, Larry, because I don't think these companies, with these management people, should be given a dime, because that's just going to be money going up in smoke or off to other countries."

In 1989's "Roger and Me," Moore turned his -- ultimately unsuccessful -- pursuit of a meeting with former GM CEO Roger Smith into a funny yet scathing attack on GM's decisions to cut and shift jobs away from Flint. The film led him to Hollywood and other movies, including "SiCKO", "Bowling for Columbine" and "Fahrenheit 9/11."

But Moore, who is often assailed by conservative talk radio and politicians, hedges on whether Congress should reject calls for a loan package for the Big Three. He recalls many of the autoworkers he knows and whose work he's championed.

When King asked him why he had "mixed feelings," Moore responded: "Well, because we can't let all these people lose their jobs because of the bad decisions, the stupid decisions made by the management of these auto companies."

Moore suggested that Congress demand change in exchange for the money, including a call to help rebuild mass transit in the country.

"President-Elect Obama has to say to them, yes, we're going to use this money to save these jobs, but we're not going to build these gas-guzzling, unsafe vehicles any longer," Moore said. "We're going to put the companies into some sort of receivership and we, the government, are going to hold the reins on these companies. They're to build mass transit. They're to build hybrid cars. They're to build cars that use little or no gasoline."

He said global warming requires the nation and the world to use less oil. "There's got to be a plan set out to find other ways to transport ourselves in other ways than using fossil fuels," he said.

As debate in Washington continues, many voices have come out with opinions on the loans. Michigan native Mitt Romney, who lost his bid for the Republican nomination to John McCain, has rejected the bailout, saying bankruptcy is better. Romney's father once led American Motors.

November 21st, 2008 4:02 pm
Stakes high as carmakers fight for survival

By Peter Wilkinson / CNN

U.S. carmakers are battling to stay in business amid plummeting sales and huge financial challenges brought on by the credit crisis.

The Big Three of Detroit -- General Motors, Ford and Chrysler -- say they are running out of cash and may not survive beyond 2009 unless they receive a bailout of $25 billion from the $700 billion already approved for Wall Street. GM is even pursuing merger talks with Chrysler.

The U.S. carmakers are far from being alone. Several other manufacturers around the world are struggling but there is arguably more riding on the Big Three's survival.

For a start, nothing is more closely identified with the American Dream than the motor car. For over a century, from the mass-produced Model T Ford to the muscle-bound Chevrolet Corvette to the all-conquering Hummer, U.S. designs have inspired respect and imitators across the globe.

And the auto industry contributes a sizeable chunk -- about 2 percent -- to the U.S. economy, meaning that if one or more of the carmakers goes bust, millions could be thrown out of work and the U.S. federal government would lose tax revenues of more than $150 billion over three years.

So how has the industry got into this mess?

The main problem, of course, is plummeting sales which this month are expected to be at their lowest level in 25 years, industry experts predict. According to J.D. Power, automakers will sell 10.8 million vehicles at retail (fleet sales will add another 2.8 million). That's a drop of more than 15 percent from 2007.

"Nobody is coming into the showrooms," admits a senior official from Volkswagen of America.

Falling sales, however, are just one part of the many difficulties that have engulfed American carmakers. Critics say economic mismanagement and uncompetitive, fuel-thirsty designs are the real causes of the crisis.

GM, Ford and Chrysler, are certainly facing monumental financial challenges that have left them with poor credit ratings, making it prohibitively expensive to raise cash to develop new models to compete with greener designs from Japan that appeal to today's motorists.

GM risks running out of money later this year or early in 2009 without a bailout. The company burned through $6.9 billion in the third quarter, leaving it with just $16 billion at the end of September. But it needs $11 billion to $14 billion to continue normal operations.

Ford and Chrysler have more cash relative to their needs, mostly from money they borrowed prior to the current credit crunch. But each of those automakers could also run out of cash during 2009 without federal assistance.

"These are truly unimaginable times for our industry," said CEO Robert Nardelli in the statement. "We continue to be in the most difficult economic period most of us can remember."

U.S. President-elect Barack Obama has pledged not to allow America's iconic auto industry to collapse but the debate in Congress over whether to approve the loans has divided opinions.

Supporters of the bailout argue that if the Big Three can survive next year, when a recession is forecast to hit consumers hard, they will be in position to be competitive in the long term.

That is because billions of dollars in annual savings on pensions and healthcare won in a 2007 labor deal with powerful trades unions kick in that year. Car sales are also projected to pick up again by 2010 and that plant closings between now and then will bring the Big Three's capacity in line with this demand.

Dave Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research, also offers some grounds for optimism. Once the downturn passes, he told TIME magazine, there will be a lot of pent-up demand for new more fuel-efficient vehicles. GM is feverishly working on the Chevrolet Volt, an electric car that could go a long way towards changing the way Americans think about such cars.

Even smaller Chrysler is promising to deliver seven new models by 2010. That's if it can get there. J.P. Morgan predicts sales levels will sink again next year and recover only marginally in 2010. "The trick is making it through the current period," Cole says.

But around the world there is suspicion that the U.S. bailout for carmakers could prove to be protectionist and distort the global car market.

UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown has made a thinly veiled criticism of the planned bailout measure. "I do think it is really important that we send out a signal today that protectionism would be the road to ruin," Brown said, in a speech to the Council of Foreign Relations in New York on November 14.

The EU also said it would act against the U.S. at the World Trade Organization if the European Commission ruled the bailout as illegal under international rules.

Fiat has warned that aid to U.S. automakers "would change the balance in Europe. It is a question we are following with attention," according to its CEO Sergio Marchionne.

And in the United States, just as the economic crisis has sparked derision for the bankers, there is little sympathy for car industry bosses.

The CEOs of the Big Three hardly helped their cause on Wednesday when they flew private jets to Washington to request taxpayer bailout money.

"There is a delicious irony in seeing private luxury jets flying into Washington, D.C., and people coming off of them with tin cups in their hand, saying that they're going to be trimming down and streamlining their businesses," Gary Ackerman, a Democratic Representative from New York, told the stony-faced executives.

Both Democrats and Republicans say automakers have had years to cut their costs and introduce more competitive models and have failed. A better option, they argue, is bankruptcy, enabling the Big Three to restructure and ultimately emerge as leaner and viable businesses.

Outside Congress there are major doubts about the bailout. Filmmaker Michael Moore became an international figure in 1989 for his film, "Roger and Me," which centered on the declining auto industry in his hometown of Flint, Michigan and the ripple effect on the town's residents.

He told CNN's Larry King that the rescue must go ahead but with major strings attached. "President-Elect Obama has to say to them, yes, we're going to use this money to save these jobs, but we're not going to build these gas-guzzling, unsafe vehicles any longer."