There were never any doubts in my mind. Much like I have no doubts that they will do absolutely nothing about the healthcare crisis the working class faces. Ain't wonderful to live in a country that takes from the poor to give to the rich?

Absolutely not. Let them file bankruptcy. They need to get out of the union contracts and reorganize. Too much of the price of a car is tied into labor costs. The unions are killing themselves by demanding higher wages and more benefits. Here's one plan that I agree with: The federal government needs to make the purchase of a new car, tax-deductible. I save my money, the Big 3 make money. The only one out is the government. Why should the government give MY money to another business when I will get nothing out of it? Makes no sense.

How many of you all remember Billy Joel's song Allentown and the story behind it? Nearly thirty years ago, the steel industry was in nearly the same place that the auto industry is now. No one ever thought of asking the government for help back then. There had never been industrial giants as big and all encompassing as the steel industry and auto industry before the last century and there had never been one that close to the edge before. There had never been unions like that before either. They were in new territory. Everyone figured they'd go into bankruptcy and reorganize. An industry that big couldn't topple. They were a blue chip stock, for pete's sake. Bethlehem Steel had just built a new office tower in downtown Bethlehem. Even though it added enormously to constuction costs, it had been built in the shape of a cross so that every executive could have a corner office. A company that could do that wasn't going to close. BUT IT DID! There is no longer a Bethlehem Steel or a U.S. Steel. Bethlehem Steel sits cold and abandoned and the Smithsonian is talking about making a museum out of part of it. Cold rolled steel and foriegn steel took over. The rust belt has never recovered. Allentown has become a bedroom community for New York City, even though it is nearly 80 miles away. Large swaths of Detroit are abandoned. Other cities, like Erie, Cleveland and Buffalo are just hanging on and not even close to what they were thirty years ago. The auto industry employs a huge chunk of our population, both in the assembly plants and in sub-assembly plants. If it collapses like the steel giants did, our economy will be toast for the next fifty years or so at least. It may never recover. If we don't learn from history, we are doomed to repeat it.

It is so sad the USA news media will not permit the people to know Canada has approved loans to the US auto makers several weeks ago from what I understand in in the billions of dollars. All the automakers have large plants in Canada and Canada wants to keep them there and work hard to do so! Bush just wants to try and look good today announcing the bailout today.

This is one of the dumbest ideas of all! This will permit them to build more cars that no one even wants to buy and if they did want to purchase they can't get loans with reasonable rates because they can't find work to pay the loans off with! The taxpayers are going to have to pay for this mistake for generations! The government should be giving them a bill for all the past subsidizes and the pollution that needs to be cleaned up now!