as a Michigan citizen I believe it is for the good of the country to issue the automakers a loan.  However I believe that all three heads of the companies should be forced to resign.  I only wish someone took these precautions when it came to bailing out Wall Street.

The "bailout" is a loan, unlike the gift we gave to AIG and the rest of the banks, even the ones that didn't need it.

Chrysler borrowed and paid it back years ago, with interest, allowing the Fed. Gov. to make a lot of money.

Senator Shelby from Alabama definately has ulterior motives.  And the fact that he voted against the Chrysler bailout in the 70's, and claims he was correct in that vote because here they are again, only 30 something years later, tells me he needs to retire.  Why is it all the southern white republican men are so against a loan? I have had Jeeps (liberty,commander for work) for the last six years and hope to have another one in a year or so, however if they are in bankruptcy, I will have to look at something else, which I don't want to do.  

Why don't the oil companies bail out the auto industry?  They certainly can afford it.

why do you survey the IGNORANT ????????

The vast majority of Americans are terribly IGNORANT.

IGNORANT is different from stupid. Yet people are more offended when you tell them that they are IGNORANT than when you tell them that they are behaving as if they are stupid. Why is that?

Question most of them and they will prove that they are IGNORANT on the majority of subjects. So why poll them without testing them first on their IGNORANCE LEVEL. The game has become a matter misleading the electorate into voting against the self interest of the majority. To get the majority to think that they are saving themselves some expense or hardship by voting against their own interests unwittingly.

Test people for ignorance on a subject before you poll them on the issue being discussed.

I just have one question. Who actually gets to spend that money, and on exactly what will it be spent? Seems no one knows. And that's why I'm against this plan to give away the earned income of the next 4 generations, to people who have proven not to be the best in finincial leadership.

I don't get it -- the MSNBC poll shows that 1.3% approve a gas tax, 17.8% lowering the cost structure, 4.1% incentive for buyers, 19.0% more efficient cars, 14.7% for federal bridge loan and a whopping 43% for bankruptcy -- and that is out of 45,375 votes, not a sampling of 1,000.  It will really make me mad if congress gives these auto companies one red cent!! WHO IS GOING TO BUY THESE CARS??? The repo yards are full (banks can't get rid of them), car dealerships across the country have closed or near closing because nobody is buying new cars, people are losing their homes AND their jobs!!!
You watch, come March or April, these auto companies will be broke again!!!-- it's like throwing money out the window!!! When will congress learn??? Of course, most of them were attorneys, not economists!!

Current executives at these corporations are not willing to retool and make an effort to go full force for hybred or better fuel cell or electric autos..the oil companies have held them hostage..or lining those pockets..these people must me ousted and replaced w/smarter people who work for a REASONABLE $$ before Japan, Korea, China and Europe put us out of the Biz.

I would approve the bailout only with certain conditions:  The CEOs refund their salaries or bonuses they have received for the last 2 years.  These monies would be deposited back into their specific company or to the general people.  
2.  They would be required to ONLY start making energy-saving cars, trucks, etc. (Electric and water
products).
Although I realize that the US cannot let these auto companies go under, 'We the people" will be paying for all of the flagrant and misuse they have conducted that has resulted to this degree and the bailout.

You can't bail out auto companies or other businesses for inept performance and management.
You're only putting a band-aid on the situation and wasting taxpayer's money.

DON'T Bail out the UNIONS UAW isn't worth it !

Until American Car Makers provide appealing, reliable, economical cars, I'll stick with the foreign market Thank you! As for the bailout, NO THANKS. These people get paid like engineers to make cars? Please. They make more than policemen and teachers. Something is wrong with that picture. Let them crash and burn and pay them lower and kick out the union.

Buy American!

restructure & fire = chapter 11

If the Republicans in Congress allow a bail out of the big 3 auto-makers to pass, then they have forever lost my vote for all offices.

The Auto-Bailout/Cry on the governments shoulder/Rescue Plan is joke.  Is this going to cost the taxpayers eventually? Of course. Can I write my own bailout/rescue plan and the government will come to my aid? Only when hell freezes over.  Is this a loan to the auto companies? Its unknown at this time. If the taxpayer is going to be responsible to pay this back, can we get a new car free? What is a Car Zcar?  Is this a person from Russia who will monitor how the auto companies spend this money-what a joke? Who came up with this name? What are they going to use this money for-to build more cars that they can't sell. I think they really need to take a sabbatical to the Virgin Islands to discuss this a little further on their private jet and don't forget to have a margarita on me.  I have not had a vacation since 1977.

Most countries protect their great industries like the priceless national treasures that they are. Here we seem to delight in their destruction. All the while spending as much of our money with foreign competitors as we can.

So if that isn't a sign of national decadence, then please tell me what is ..

seeing all that is transpiring I am surprised how all our lawmakers seem to think they are not culpable for all that is happening.Like kids they want to point fingers and shove the blame on others and control them.Make them answerable to mandates otherwise no BAILOUT suffer go to damnation forgetting they are our countrymen.What type of governors are they I wonder.When will wisdom dawn.It is sickening to see the same refrain it is not a musical lyric, even that after sometime will be boring.When some are adament about their stand can you not also understand rightly or wrongly the same is true of the one you want to bring about a change in.Stop this fillibuster and get on with what is good not for you guys but for those whom you are responsible for, be like a SHIPS CAPTAIN in peril will be the last one to abandon ship if need be unfortunately go down with the vessel.I want to see if our law makers will shape up it is not late yet.Show us you are ones we can trust.

Having brought our country to this low level will our entrusted lawmakers be ready to resign or accept only a dollar per year work hard to bring about a change.

Fianlly people are waking up to the truth about what can happen to this country without the Big 3. We can't let them fail and they won't make it if they go bankrupt. Sen. Shelby and Sessions and Corker and the others only want to break the unions. According to what they said earlier the foreign auto plants are now paying more than the big 3. That's how much the UAW has given back to make this work. We have to support them and keep America working until the banks start to give loans and the economy gets going again.

HELLO EVERYONE OUT THERE, AS BARARA BUSH SAID AWHILE BACK WHEN HER HUSBAND WAS IN OFFICE IN AN INTERVIEW WITH JANE PAULEY FROM THE TODAY SHOW. THEY GOT THEM SELFS IN TO THIS MESS LET THEM GET THEM SELFS OUT.
I LIVE ON 674.DOLLARSA A MONTH BECAUSE OF A JOB RELATED ACCIDENT. I LOST MY BRAND NEW TRUCK AND NOW HAVE TO DEPEND ON MYFRIENDS TO GET ME AROUND. THESE BIG TIME CAR MAKERS NEED A LESSON IN BUDGETING. I DON'T THINK THE AMERICAN PEOPLE SHOULD BE STUCK WITH THEIR BILLS. THE GOVRMENT WON'T TAKE CARE OF PEOPLE WHO NEED HELP ONLY THE ONCES THAT ARE GOING TO LINE THEIR POCKETS. I WAS TOLD BY SOCIAL SECURITY THAT AS LONG AS I COULD MOVE MY ARMS AND LEGS I COULD MAKE A LIVING. WELL CAR MAKERS GET OUT THERE AND FIND A NEW JOB TO PAY YOUR BILLS. I HOPE YOU DON'T GET YOUR BILL UT. THIS COUNTRY IS IN SUCH DEBT NOW AND YOU JUST WANT TO DRIVE THE STAKE IN MORE.

Why do we have a debate.  We are in trouble, people, we need jobs.  Remember?  If we have 10+% unemployment in this country, we will be in a depression.  Not saving these companies will put 3 million people out of work, DAY ONE, then another 2 million in the next 18 months.  We give the Wall Street companies, billions yet debate the middle class worker like they do not matter to our economy.  Quit the politics, get this done and get it to the next administration.  Come on....this is just crazy.  

More people would disapprove of the Automotive Bailout if the matter was presented in a fair and honest manner.  Tax-payers lack the kind of lobbyists the Big Three and the UAW can afford.  People have been given the impression that a Bailout will save all of these jobs and things will go back to where they were.  The truth is that the Big Three had a market share problem and were losing money at an incredible rate before the credit crisis.  The Big Three have to reduce jobs, production and franchises because fewer people want their products, not because of the general economy.  Granted, the present economic mess didn't help, but it didn't create the real problem.

Average Americans need to consider that there is a $41 Trillion shortfall in the future coverage of Social Security and Medicare benefits.  Providing an automotive Bailout WILL NOT save these badly run companies.  Throwing away more tax-payer money WILL endanger our ability to care for the aged and infirmed.  Should all of us suffer to preserve the lavish pay and benefits of the UAW and keep the inept management of the Big Three in their well-paid jobs?  How many more companies will Congress want to Bailout?  Will there ever will an end to this give-away?

Perhaps we the tax-payer had an army of well-funded lobbyists, we might hear about the UAW "Job Bank" and the future of Social Security.

The banking industry examiners were not doing their job when examining banks slow pay or troubled assets loan files. Debt to income ratios for loans were ignored or fabricated to facitate making a loan. We would be better off with the government regulating all lending operations to include mortgage brokers,with the authority to shut down instutions who fail to follow prudent lending standards-shut down while they are stll worth something. FDIC couldn't cover CitiCorp if it was allowed to fail. Act early and decisively and hold executives and board members accountable, to include criminal charges for failure to perform their fiduciary duties.

TARP is easy

When Obama gets into office, FIX IT
Put someone competent and responsible in charge

Re-Regulate banks and financial institutions
Get back to anti-trust controls to prevent the extreme conceentration we see today

If a financial institution wants to operate nationally, it should bechartered nationally, and the feds should regulate it, including interest rates....

END USURY
Abolish the abombinable Bankruptcy law passed under Clinton

Let's get started

Yeah, Yeah, Yeah. Where the HELL is my $700B, plus $300B, plus all the other "bailout" money.
This big 3 is nothing compared to those.  A car czar?  That problem wil take care of itself!  It's the jobs I'm worried about.  
But the $700B+?  That's what I'm talkin about! WHERE IS IT?

Why do I(!!) have to bail out GM and CHRYSLER and FORD and the banking system?  ABSOLUTELY NOT!!  Why doesn't our representives in government instead go after the problem that is at the root of most of this - OIL!  What brought on high food prices and increased tranportation and manufacturing costs and the unraveling of everything else?  OIL!  Keep oil below $35 a barrel and you will see people working again and buying those big cars that Detroit doesn't know what to do with. Do not allow oil futures to be bought and traded on the stock market.

Let them all go bankrupt.  Then they can radically restructure the company into a lean functioning manufacturing concern.  Once they're in Chapter 11 the first order of business is to ditch the union.  Oh, the union will say how necessary it is but the workers at Toyota don't think so, do they?  There are pensioners getting 98% of their working salaries.  Really folks, this sounds like a government job rather than private enterprise.

Next, how 'bout building a GOOD car that uses alternate fuels, electricty and/or fuel cells.  We all hear about the fuel delivery system that can get 100 miles to a galleon that the auto manufacturers purched the patents and and was promptly burried.  And you thought Area 51 as secret.

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