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I completely disagree. If we can get the right package together, then we need to save the domestic auto industry. The reason is that all the Car Companies have some really exciting new vehicles coming out in the next couple of years. If Detroit can make it through the next two years then it can survive.

We are going to have a rough next 18 months. It would be hard for any company to get through this time if didn't have the capital. If Detroit makes it then the money will be paid back to US taxpayer. The new contracts that the workers will have will greatly reduce the labor differential that exists with the foreign car companies.

We need our auto industry. We cannot lose the manufacturing expertise that resides in this industry. We can make great cars again. We have outstanding engineers- as good if not better than any in the world. It's simply a matter of cost structure for the US auto makers. We have lost so much of our manufacturing capacity as it is. We cannot afford to lost the auto industry. I don't give a rats a** about financial companies. We have bailed them out. Financial companies can be created virtually overnight. There's basically nothing to it. But the knowledge that goes into our manufacturing technology cannot be replaced once lost.

My father has worked for GM for over 30 yrs. as a world class certified mechanic - he believes that the only way for the auto industry to ever get itself back to where it once was is to go bankrupt. They will file for Chap. 11 and that doesn’t mean that everything goes - it provides protection under that business clause. This will let them restructure themselves and start over - they can drastically change their management structure which should have happened long ago and it also provides protection against the exorbanent costs for unions. They need to either get rid of unions or at least get rid of the corruption in them or downsize/restructure as well. Throwing money at something does not work. It’s the same concept of enabling somebody with an addiction. If they don’t hit bottom they will never learn. It doesn’t mean that they can’t change and work back up once they hit bottom but it means that they will fail and fall even harder if lessons are not learned.

So I agree w/ Mitt on this but I don’t trust the guy at all.

I completely disagree. If we can get the right package together, then we need to save the domestic auto industry

The only way to save the domestic auto industry is to put it through Chapter 11.

You seem to be under the mistaken impression that bankruptcy means the end of a company. That's not true. The whole point of Chapter 11 is to restructure a company and free it from its debt and other liability burden so that it can emerge as a profitable going concern.

There's no way the US auto makers can start operating on a profitable basis until their union contracts are scrapped, their pension obligations canceled, their debt is converted to equity, and their unproductive assets sold off so that they can focus on those parts of their business that actually will be able to generate positive returns. The only way any of this can happen is with Chapter 11.

I completely disagree. If we can get the right package together,....

I disagree with your disagreement, in part. I agree that this manufacturing capability should stay here, but it's not for the government to fix. No problem exists that the automakers can't fix themselves. It's called leadership, and when taken for more than a buzzword it means that they cut costs everywhere across the board. Get rid of the internal corporate welfare, and all of us in corporate America know what that is. They don't NEED mandatory diversity awareness training for every employee, amongst a plethora of other mandatory and equally useless training. They don't NEED whole departments of useless idiots for "Supplier Diversity" either. They are also don't NEED gaggles of people working in organizations like "Safety Health and Environmental". CUT CUT CUT. It's corporate bloat that is causing this and giving them a check will only prolong the bleed. Engineers, and the "touch" labor, i.e. those that directly add value to the product, and the leanest of management chains needs to be the only thing left. They would then be out of trouble, and maybe even make money. As to their labor disputes, let the shareholders vote on the labor contracts. Don't like what you get paid....move on, it's a free country, for now.