The supply of “help” from Washington D.C. is apparently endless. Since American car manufacturers aren’t able to be globally competitive and are therefore losing money, let’s just make more up and hand it to them.
WASHINGTON (Reuters) – There were fresh calls on Sunday for the Bush administration to help stalled U.S. automakers, but Democratic and Republican officials said taxpayers cannot repeatedly support business rescues.
Republican Sen. Mel Martinez of Florida delivered important backing for those urging the Bush administration to use a recently launched $700 billion corporate bailout program to rescue General Motors Corp, Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC with desperately needed cash.
“Within the authority of that package, I think it’s possible for the secretary of the treasury to direct a loan to that — to those entities,” Martinez said.
Martinez is a member of the Banking Committee, which oversees administration of the financing program.
The Bush administration, which recently rebuffed a request for capital from GM to help facilitate a possible merger with Chrysler, has not decided whether it will — or can, by law — expand the bailout initiative beyond banks and other financial services firms.
GM, Ford and Chrysler are burning through cash at a rapid rate and are seeking at least $25 billion in immediate federal loans to help them survive.
Someone explain to me where all this money comes from. It has to come from somewhere. Someone explain to me why we reward irresponsible behavior with more irresponsibility. Top down irresponsibility is not a method building a successful organization.
The Big Three are beaten but they won’t admit to defeat, much like the Japanese in World War II. Instead of manna from heaven maybe we should drop a Fat Boy on Detroit. Companies that cannot turn a profit should be allowed to fail. Instead we are creating a world where we are eventually ALL going to fail.