Pelosi said the auto industry funds would come with many strings attached, including restructuring company finances, meeting new standards for gas mileage and requiring advanced technologies “to compete in the domestic and global market.” The speaker’s office offered no specifics about what the new fuel efficiency standards would be and what types of technologies would be required for the auto industry.
This has been a really telling year for the auto industry. They saw their sales plummet this summer when we had gas over $4.00 a gallon. It seems no one wanted a 13 mpg Hummer. Go figure…
After that we saw the new hammer come down on the auto industry – the credit crunch. Besides people not being able to afford gas (not because of the high price now, but because of a crapping out economy) they also can’t get the credit to finance a new car. It has been a double whammy for the auto industry.
We do need to take action to protect the auto industry. They provide way too many jobs to our economy to just ignore. But the White House doesn’t seem to want to use any of that $700 billion to help them:
he White House on Saturday firmly rejected pumping more aid into struggling US automakers out of the 700-billion dollars earmarked for an economic bailout plan earlier in this year.
“We want to see legislation passed at this week’s lame duck session that uses existing funds intended for the automakers that will help them become viable for the long run,” said White House spokeswoman Dana Perino.
Of course the White House doesn’t want to see any of that money given an actual purpose. Instead they can sit there and do what they want with it.
Perhaps the lame duck session should get back in and amend the existing bailout. Earmark $25 billion of it to the auto industry, along with Pelosi’s recommendations, and they also put in strict oversight of the administrations appropriation of that money. George Bush has already exhibited his lack of care for our nation, and with only two months to go he could end up wasting away the entire bailout without ever helping our economy. What a quagmire for Obama to inherit.