Pelosi Says Congress Won’t Let Auto Makers Down
But…car companies will have to demonstrate they can survive (ideally thrive) in the marketplace.
Looks like they will have to call a meeting of all parties involved, get out the PowerPoint, and come up with a viable plan.
But while pledging “unequivocal” support for the companies and their workers, Ms. Pelosi said that “for the last generation,” Detroit executives had been making management decisions that put them in the dire straits they find themselves today — forced to come to Congress to plead for $25 billion in immediate aid, without which, the executives said, one or more of the storied companies could go bankrupt.
Not everybody in congress is on board, though.
Some legislators, notably Senator Richard Shelby, Republican of Alabama, have been adament in refusing to toss a life-preserver to the car makers, on the ground that the companies’ troubles are largely of their own making, and that letting them have billions in federal loans would be throwing good money after bad and just delaying the inevitable.
What good is that $25 billion already approved to help with re-tooling for fuel-efficiency, if there is nothing to retool?