We may have an auto bailout

It seems our elected betters have come together to negotiate a emergency bailout for the Big Three. They have agreed to a set of principles. The main principle: Fuck you, pay me. In short the Democrats and Bush are copacetic, now they have to get it by the Senate Republicans. The deal so far.

Under the plan, unveiled by Democratic leaders, the Treasury Department would cut checks for the car companies as soon as next week. The proposal also calls for President Bush to name a "car czar" to manage a vast restructuring of the firms and restore them to profitability.

Democrats bent to the will of the president on several key demands, most notably in agreeing that the emergency funding would be drawn from an existing loan program aimed at promoting fuel-efficient technologies.

Still, the White House objected yesterday to several elements of the Democratic proposal, congressional aides said, including requirements that the car companies notify Washington of any transaction of more than $25 million and that they pull out of lawsuits against states seeking to enforce tougher tailpipe-emissions standards.

Oh good, wouldn't want the banks to have less money, let's take the money from a fund designed to help car companies move to better fuel-efficiency. That doesn't sound completely counter-intuitive. At least we'll have a car czar, whatever the fuck that means, who'll evidently run three companies at once and restore them all to profitability after he completely restructures them. That sounds plausible.

Will this work? Probably not. By the time this is over the auto industry will eat up a lot more of our monies. But when the economy is in the shitter this is the type of thing you have to do so that you don't go adding in the complete collapse of American auto manufacturing and a couple million more jobless people. It's a down payment, grab your ankles.