Despite of this fact that we got screwed, I believe that our politicians in Washington will bailout the American Auto Industries. Why you asked? Because they already sent their lobbyists carrying bags full of money up capitol hill and deposited into those politicians’ campaign contribution funds.

Make a deal with the Devil and you have only yourself to blame for the bad outcome.

Probably the most sound logic I've seen in this topic. I'm sure we can all agree that we've been bailing out failing businesses since 9/12/2001.

When the airlines started to fall, if there was any hope for this nation at all, the government would have said no the first time.

But after turning the airlines into a pseudo-government-taxpayerpaid-entity, I think all corporations looked at that as "what can I get from the government too".

Because now that banks, car makers, and any other large failing company sees YOU AND ME and an endless supply of money, this won't end soon.

Crooked elections, crooked politicians, crooked CEO's, ....

My support for the financial sector was based on a grudging admission that there didn't seem to be a better solution than buying assets that are currently unpriceable so banks would have a better picture of their solvency.

Now that the bailout has evolved into "recapitalization", it no longer has my support.

No matter what your politics are, left or right, I think we can all agree that bailing out the U.S. auto industry is a bad idea.

But bailing out the financial industry...no problem. Who cares if it sends a signal, "Go ahead and screw up, but make sure it is big so we can bail you out." Never mind that it doesn't address any of the problems that caused the crisis.

The inconsistency is...amusing.

We have no real leadership that will let these big companies fail, period. Too big to fail only applies to corporations and not the middle class, of course. The GOP certainly would take a hit if they threatened to lose jobs - Joe the plumber and Joe the car maker would take a huge hit if those factories dried up and jobs went overseas.

If Obama's first choice was to let the automakers go under, that'd stain his entire presidency, before his first day in office.

No, no one is going to risk this. No politician really believes in small govt, in the free market.
HOw can you socialize the risk and privatize the profits in Washington, and still claim to support the market? You can't. Just keep buying votes.

So what is a Detroit bailout going to look like, relative to the banks and AIG? In this environment I'd say if it's less than $50B it's chump-change, and we don't have to waste time on it.

We have bigger problems. (See also The Big Picture on tax breaks granted unconstitutionally by the Treasury Department.)

I suspect it'll happen though. The democrats will want to give handouts to the unions, the republicans to the executives - so long as there's welfare for both union and execs both parties will be on board. When push comes to shove, neither party shows any interest in free enterprise.

NOTE: Now that the election is over our famous Around The Sphere linkfest reverts to its original form — offering you links from a variety of weblogs, not all of them to political posts. Linked posts do not necessarily reflect the opinion of TM...

Imagine, what happens to union power, when GM Ford and Chrysler fold? They haven't exactly been accepted with open arms... wo where would they go?

I've heard that one in seven US jobs is indirectly (or directly) connected to the US auto industry

You may have heard it but that doesn't necessarily make it true. Can you offer some support for the claim? The most recent repetition of that claim I've heard is from John Dingell and he doesn't offer any more support for it than you do.

The problem is that over the last 25 years the domestic auto companies have cut their payrolls roughly in half and many of the parts that used to be made here are now made overseas. The Detroit automakers just aren't as important as they used to be. People who work for auto dealers, auto mechanics, and other service jobs shouldn't count into the total because even if GM and Ford collapse completely many of those jobs will remain. Losing the Detroit automakers is not synonymous with losing all domestic jobs connected to the auto industry.

Hyundai has dealers, too, and local people are employed working on Subarus as well as on Chevies.

compare the plants in Michigan with those in say SC where honda has a large plant and profits.

Honda also makes cars in MI what is your point?

There is some number of dollars "in" every car to pay health care, and it's supposed to be one reason Detroit is trapped into making big and high-ticket SUVs rather than smaller, cheaper, more efficient cars.