Should Congress Bail Out the Big Three?

Wagoner, who flew in GM's $36 million luxury aircraft to ask for $10-12 billion for GM alone, cost his ailing company an estimated $20,000 for the trip to Washington! Even as the companies are running out of cash, Ford Motor continues to operate a fleet of eight private jets for its executives. GM and Ford say that it is a corporate decision to have their CEOs fly on private jets and that is non-negotiableDetroit's automakers burned through nearly $18 billion in cash reserves during the last quarter--about $7 billion at GM, $3 billion at Chrysler and $7.7 billion at Ford. GM said it may run short of funds before the end of 2008, and Chrysler said that survival would be difficult without aid.
The CEO's claimed to congress that what exposed them to failure now is the global financial crisis which has restricted credit availability and reduced sales. They claimed their problem is neither their business plan nor their long term strategies but the financial situation we are in now. However, for years the Big Three kept building what they wanted without paying attention to the economics of the world around them and the needs of consumers who started to prefer cheaper and safer cars with better millage.

No matter what your political persuasion, no one thinks the auto company executives are doing a good job. It is hard to be sympathetic to an industry that has been so grossly mismanaged. People fear that they are going to take this money and continue the same stupid decisions they have made for 25 years. Let them go down, they say. Taxpayer money will go up in smoke if given to such incompetent management.