Should Congress Bail Out the Big Three?

Corp. Each CEO flew in style in one of their company's luxurious jets hoping to make their case to Washington that the auto industry is running out of cash and needs $25 billion in taxpayer money to avoid bankruptcy. GM and Ford say that it is a corporate decision to have their CEOs fly on private jets and that is non-negotiable. This is a slap in the face of taxpayers" said Tom Schatz, President of Citizens Against Government Waste. If the Union of Automobile Workers (UAW) is blamed for costs that add about $2,000 to the cost of a car, one wonders how much the executive multimillion legacies add to the cost! GM said it may run short of funds before the end of 2008, and Chrysler said that survival would be difficult without aid.
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. At the same time foreign car companies were building better performing, more reliable and fuel efficient cars. The truth is that the American car industry for the most part had snoozed.
Money to bail out GM will go to build a $300 billion factory outside St. Petersburg in Russia to continue making SUVs! Redesign and retooling will end up with jobs shipped overseas! Companies fail every day and others take their place. We will still get automobiles, but they won't be made by American companies!
Other statistics suggest that a 50% reduction in U.S. automaker operations will cause over $108 billion losses in Federal, state and local governments in tax revenue over three years. Therefore, some argue, it is a choice between $25 billion in loans now or several times more billions in lost taxes in the future. It is estimated 850,000 retirees and their families depend for pensions and health care on the Big Three. The Big Three contribute $21 billion a year to Social Security and Medicare. If we add in all the businesses that depend on the auto industry, and we are talking about one-tenth of the U.S. labor force.