Auto Industry

A government “car czar” with the power to force U.S. automakers into bankruptcy would dole out $15 billion in emergency loans to the failing industry under an emerging deal between the White House and congressional Democrats.

Tense talks are continuing on a bill to provide financial aid to the auto industry as the White House pushes tougher consequences than congressional Democrats embrace for failure by the carmakers to bring costs under control.

A bailout plan for the failing U.S. auto industry could include a Cabinet-level oversight board and a provision to withdraw the money if the overseers decide the companies are failing to take steps to overhaul themselves.

The chairman of the House Financial Services Committee says the new bleak unemployment figures makes helping the nation’s beleaguered auto industry even more urgent.

Humbled U.S. automakers pleaded with Congress Thursday for an expanded $34 billion rescue package, but heard fresh skepticism in a bumpy encore appearance.

Since reparations is an accursed term, I'm comfortable with just labeling it a "bailout" for now.

Ford Motor Co. is asking Congress for a $9 billion “stand-by line of credit” to stabilize its business, but says it doesn’t expect to tap it.

From Politico: You don’t hear much about the Iraq war these days, though the US death toll hit 4,205 on Monday. If human life isn't a convincing enough reason to bow out, writes Roger Simon in Politico, then here's one that "really is upsetting people these days: money."

From Bankole Thompson at the Michigan Chronicle: “It’s 3 a.m. and Detroit is calling, not because there is a security emergency, but because there is an economic emergency. It is imperative that Washington picks up the phone.”

Democratic leaders in Congress sidetracked legislation to bail out the auto industry Thursday and demanded the Big Three develop a plan assuring the money would make them economically viable.

A bipartisan group of auto-state senators reached a last-ditch compromise Thursday to throw Detroit’s Big Three a government lifeline worth billions, but the plan faces an uphill battle in a reluctant Senate.

From WXYZ.com: In an editorial appearing in today’s New York Times, Michigan native and former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney writes Congress should not give the Big 3 a bailout.