Obama Pushes for $50 Billion for Automakers, Oversight Czar

[depakid]

Source: Bloomberg

President-elect Barack Obama is pushing Congress this year to approve as much as $50 billion to save cash-starved U.S. automakers and appoint a czar or board to oversee the companies, a move that would require President George W. Bush's support, people familiar with the matter said.

Obama's economic advisers are now convinced that if General Motors Corp. doesn't get a financial lifeline soon, it will have to file for bankruptcy by the end of January. And if the companies don't get almost $50 billion, Obama will be dealing with the issue again by next summer.

Any czar or board would be patterned after the bailout of Chrysler in 1979 and New York City in 1975. Advisers such as former Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker and former Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers are said to be telling Obama that the cash is urgently needed now.

Congress would have to act in a lame-duck session that begins next week. Obama would need Bush's backing to pass such a sweeping and costly measure in part because Democrats don't have enough votes to force a floor vote or override a veto. Obama also would need strong support from auto-producing states such as Michigan, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin to pass such a sweeping and costly measure.

Read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601087&sid=aBl...

[amitta]

1. no strings attached

and the oversight board will be criminals just like the wall street heist.
Obama needs to dump his ecomonic advisors.

[Name removed]

2. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[sce56]

3. What is an ecomonic? Is that like moronic?

[Fenris]

5. Yeah, Paul A.Volcker and Lawrence Summers - what a couple of morons!

[depakid]

6. That's not what the article stated

[Dems4me]

7. There will be strings attached. Chrysler had to repay the government

for the money it was loaned. I'm sure GM will have to payback
the loan over time with tight oversight on the governments part
to help insure it is repaid. There are a lot of jobs on the line
if GM goes under including loss for rebound jobs associated with
GM.
This is all risky to be sure, since our economic
situation is a first for any country, there are no 'for sure' answers.
I quess they assume it may be riskier for our country to do nothing
than to try the loan and fail.

[madrchsod]

9. people who invested in chrysler stock at that time made a pile of money.

chrysler came out with the mini-van and the rest was history.

[DainBramaged]

12. Thanks for remembering

The mini-van and Jeep portions of the business are what ALL of the parties invoved in the break up of Chrysler are interested in.

[madrchsod]

13. jeep is still selling well around the world.

jeep is the only thing that is keeping belvedere plant going. the germans rebuilt that plant for about 750million and what did they end up giving away Chrysler for.

i have owned 5 dodge mini-vans and i`m still trying to find a first generation van in good shape

[Matariki]

4. I was really hoping to see any bailout auto industry loans attached to new technology

Green Revolution Baby!

[sce56]

11. Yeah Like this here car

http://zeropollutionmotors.us /

Pure Driving: The Revolutionary Compressed Air Vehicle

If you can, imagine a vehicle that runs on air, achieves over 100 gas-equivalent mpg and over 90 mph, has zero to low C02 emissions, seats six, has plenty of space for luggage, cuts no safety corners, and costs no more than an average economy to mid-size vehicle.

This is the expected performance of the revolutionary compressed air vehicle that Zero Pollution Motors (ZPM) is introducing to North America. The vehicle is powered by the Compressed Air Engine (CAE) developed by Motor Development International (MDI), a 15-year old company based in Nice, France, and headed by inventor and Formula One race car engineer, Guy Negre. ZPM is the exclusive representative for MDI in the United States.



Look at this earlier thread
http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.ph...

[madrchsod]

8. if they can get the volt into production

then half the battle will be won.obama will have no trouble getting support in the rust belt states.

[Politicalboi]

10. Air Cars

Hemp is a great fuel too. They need to scrap gas guzzlers and start green. I think Hemp has a future and it should be used for all kinds of things. Cheaper than corn better than natural gas.

[pjt7]

14. Detroit auto giants needs to get smaller

no matter how painful that may be. They are too bloated & are making inferior products. Just throwing them $ Billions is a losing proposal. Let them go into a controlled bankruptcy, trim their own companies into something sustainable & then give them the money for development of superior products.