[truthguy]

I have mixed emotions on this. I would like to see the Auto Companies helped. It is vital that we keep our manufacturing base intact. We have lost so much of our manufacturing already. Losing our auto industry might destroy US manufacturing for good.

I'm not impressed with DeMint the way some others are. He's wrong on this issue. The Auto Industry should be top priority for our survival.

I'm against government involvement in the free market in principle but government caused this financial meltdown and hence the problems with GM and the others. Recovery will come one day and people will need to buy cars. Some people on this site are almost orgasmic with delight at the demise of the US Auto Industry. they are very sick people.

[SMCC1]

Semi-agree. I wouldn’t mind so much if they weren’t talking about having all these strings attached- like the “auto-czar.” I hear a lot of our esteemed politicans saying, “well we can’t just give them the loans because they’ll be back for more. We need oversight and commitments, blah, blah blah.” I’d actually rather them just give them the loans (if they’re going to do it anyway)Make it clear there will be no more after that, and then that’s it.

[neverbluffer]

I respectfully disagree.

This is not manufacturing bailout, it is a Union bailout. This is why all the Dems support it.

Unions are the problem.

[This_far]

“I’m against government involvement in the free market in principle but government caused this financial meltdown and hence the problems with GM and the others.”

(no reply needed... )

[skinkinthegrass]

I'm against government involvement in the free market in principle but government caused this financial meltdown and hence the problems with GM and the others. Recovery will come one day and people will need to buy cars.
fine...scrap the cafe standards / drill for oil / let loose the free market / reduce Governments controls...taxes...don't bail-out the unions/auto co. for their stupid decisions.
"Trioka / Footstool of Liberalism...Corruption, Nationalization & Propaganda" Rush Limbuagh
“Liberalism is just Communism sold by the drink." P.J.O’Rourke

[iopscusa]

Uh...OK Mr/Ms TruthGuy, so you say ‘Good intentions are not enough!’ but, but, your free market principles seem to disappear when the going gets tough, why even bother to have any credibility?
Situational Principles, IOWs a feather in the wind.

[agere_contra]

The US Car industry is not under threat. The Big 3 are under threat - indeed they are already dead. Time for them to collapse and for their assets and their useful workers to be taken up by companies that know how to run at a profit. Then the US car industry - people in the US, making cars - will do fine.

Any business which cannot operate without massive gifts from Government is not a business, it is a welfare scheme.

[meyer]

I'm against government involvement in the free market in principle but government caused this financial meltdown and hence the problems with GM and the others.

Just as with the credit crisis, the government has a hand in causing this, but the government absolutely refuses to make a move to undo the damaging regulations that have helped put GM into this position. Until the UAW loses it's legally-granted leverage, the auto companies will continue to fail. Until Washington gets rid of some of the unfunded mandates (can you say 'brownfields') on industries, they will not modernize.

As a taxpayer, I'm not of the mind that they need to be bailed out with money stolen from my paycheck. Chapter 11 bankruptcy is the correct path here, as it will allow the automakers to get out from under union contracts among other expenses, and emerge as viable competitors again.

[realdifferent1]

Losing our auto industry might destroy US manufacturing for good.

For the umpteenth time, we are not losing our auto industry. We are shedding some non-competitive parts of it.