Great article! I agree wholeheartedly with what Mitt says in it. The auto industry needs to be totally restructured from top to bottom. It needs to get rid of all of the people who run it now and bring in new people with new ideas.

I do think though that they could still get a bailout but it should have conditions set on it. They could set up a commission to watch over the money and the companies to make sure that they are doing right. It could also be used to help with all of the union stuff to try to make that go smoother and faster.

Obama wants to give them a blank check. So it will happen it’s just a matter of when. So we may as well go with it now and deal with it.

Cindy…Ga.

It seems as though our economical problems started out with $4.00 a gallon gasoline. People who got loans that they struggled to pay back, really had no hope when this happened. I think that all of these big oil companies who continue to see record profits, should be responsible for bailing out Detroit. Besides, it’s Detroit’s gas guzzlers that keep them in business. There you go, problem solved.

The situation with the auto industry presents America and the Auto Industry with an opportunity to become a part of the effort for energy independence. The loan should provide leverage from the American people to retool, restructure and lead in the area of transportation. American technology and initiative should be fostered and funded. We have all been part of this problem. Now, we should be part of the solution. Mitt Romney is quite wrong about this approach.

I have always wondered why the auto industry never changed? What role did big and cheap oil and the house play by giving you a tax credit to buya Suv?

Mitt makes sense. Perhaps Obama should ask former Governor Romney to be a “car czar” and go work on the big 3 and get them to where they should be. Saves the taxpayers money and lets Romney assist in getting the country back on track as well as showing the American public that he can deliver on the job.

Annie Kate
Birmingham AL

Sometimes, when an industry is broken, it is beyond repair. This is one of those times. The auto industry should bankrupt and and re-organize from the top down…or bottom up…either way, it needs to be revamped outside of tax payer monies and within the private sector, solely, exclusively….no tax payer intervention!

Bailing out chrysler years ago did save it. It did turn around. Wth Lee Iaccoca. I wonder if he flew private jets to the tune of 20,000 per trip? 20000$ would pay for a good engineer for a few months. My friends are making hedrogen fuel cells in there garages why cant GM, Ford?

Yeah. This is how it works in business — a failing model needs to be overhauled. Companies come back all the time. They just need strategic management. Why the government thinks it can take on that role is beyond me. It isn’t in business of making cars.

I think the big three should not be bailed out of the mess of their making. Let them file chapter one. They will restructure and come back making smaller more affordable cars that John Q. Public can afford.

Instead of bailing them out, they should take that money and give each citizen 500,000., then we could stimulate the economy. People on the verge of losing everything they own could actually pay cash . It is afterall our money–is it not? They would still have a surplus left over.

If they are not careful history will repeat itself. I was not born during the great depression-but my parents as well as my grandparents were. I also learned so much about it in American History.

Our government—-capitalism and greed at it’s very best. The joke is on us—THE AMERICAN TAX PAYER.

The Big Three automakers have been building sub-quality products for many years. They have been mismanaged. They are not competitive with the foreign automakers. Why should the taxpayers be responsible for this bailout?

So, why should we “reward” them and bail them out? Will the car czar hold them accountable to improving the quality of their products? Their management?

Why not have some of the foreign car manufacturers take them over? Many of them have plants in the United States anyway.

And if we bail them out, who will come forward next? Will it ever end?

With my decling home value and portfolio, I am beginning to feel like a poor person, not the middle class person that I once was.

I’m trying to figure out how a Detroit bail out will improve retail sales of Automobiles today with todays economy?

Consumers are just not buying big ticket items like Automobiles?

Wouldn’t this Detroit bail out, only be a temporary fix?

I work for a Manufacturing company not in the Automotive business, will there be a bial out for me too?

It may be better to send that money to the american people or offer assistance in the housing and oil markets?

Amen, to Romney,they must go chapter11,or worst yet, chapter7,Fini! I’d like to point out that failure sometimes is the motivater for change, which brings about innovation,and creativity, the dynamic engine that has made our country great. Detroit is nothing more than a antiquated assembly line, with modern day model “T”s. Let’s get into the 21st century folks!

The next car I buy will be some type of hybrid. Whether or not GM goes bankrupt has no bearing on that decision. I have never bought a non-GM car but their refusal to stand up to oil companies has resulted in the end of my loyalty. They still have time to turn it around but I’m not hopeful. Leadership has failed.

If the Big 3 auto makers want a bail out then they should remember a time in 1979 when Lee Iacocca went up to the US Congress and asked for a bail out for Chrysler. Lee took a salary of $1/ year! Are the 3 CEO’s of these 3 auto manufactors willing to step up and do the same. I would like to see the question asked to them and some type of clause on the loan/ bail out that says all the CEO’s and top executives will not make more than $250,000. and no bonuses until they pay back the $25 billion in full!

First the mortgage companies and banks, now the auto industry.
What next? It seems to me that everyone is looking for a “bailout”. I don’t think forking over our tax dollars is the right solution to the problem. After all, the American’s lacking ability to pay is what landed us in this hot water anyways. Rather than making a plan that benefits only the major companies that have made poor business decisions why not make a plan that benefits the taxpayers as well? My solution to help the auto industry: Give each taxpayer a voucher towards the purchase of a car made by one of The Big Three. Putting our tax dollars into vouchers for news cars would benefit American taxpayers as well as help the auto industry get the boost in sales they are looking for.

I would like to see Governor Romney go back into the private sector and lead GM or Chrylser through the next 2-3 years. He has a talent for turning around failing enterprises (corporations, Winter Olympics) and it seems fitting that he should be asked to do it again.

Here is the truth about the high paid autoworkers:
The average pay for an assembly worker is $28 per hour
The average pension for a forced retiree is $3,000 a month
The average age of a forced retiree is 55 years old
At 62 GM reduces the pension to $1500 and Soc.Sec. Pays $1500
Medical was reduced to major medical w/no provisions for doctor’s visits unless they meet a $500 deductible.
There is a 7-year gap before most retirees can go on Medicare.
There are hundreds who have dependents covered on their health care and hundreds who can’t afford a well care visit for their children.
They don’t and can’t apply for family health care because they don’t meet the criteria or can’t afford to pay.
NOW! if the big 3 go out
WE LOSE EVERYTHING WE WORKED SO HARD FOR ALL OF OUR LIVES.
IF THERE IS A GOVERNMENT BAIL OUT, WE NEED TO PROTECT THE WORKERS, THEIR PENSION AND THEIR HEALTH CARE.
NOT THE SALARIES OF THE CEO

Allow the big 3 to go into bankruptcy, use the bailout money to pay the lost pensions. Under the bankruptcy, government forced actions to eliminate the union and pensions – no more hourly employee doing minimum wage work for $30 an hour and full benefits! This will give them a fresh start with hopefully better leadership building cars America and foreign countries want at lower prices. We can not compete with foreign car manufacturers under the same conditions. Honda building a car in the US is paying on avg. $38 an hour per employee while GM is paying $78 an hour. We are building lower quality cars and paying the employee over 100% more for poor craftsmanship? Government needs to protect the people, not the company. This will allow a fresh start on level playing fields.

Hey MattH, My husband worked for GM for 30 years and didn’t even come close to making $78 an hour. When you speak of full benefits, they were left major medical and no doctor visits. As far as the quality of the cars from the assembly line, it was 110%. Asked the big 3 where the parts were manufactured. NOT IN THE USA. The 100% over pay went to the CEO’s who couldn’t read between the lines.

I agree that a managed bankruptcy makes more sense to me than a bail out that permits the auto industry to keep on doing what they are doing with no incentive to change. However, doing this on the backs of existing retirees or those who are close to retirement is not right. People worked their jobs and planned their retirement based on certain expectations and now to pull the rug out from under them when they have few options to recover, will force more aging baby boomers into poverty and onto social services programs. Who is going to retrain and hire a 55 year old? No one. They will be greeters at WalMart and still have to be on food stamps. However, setting a sensible age cap for making changes makes sense and gives workers time to adapt and make other plans re their finances. Other than your statement re retirees, I am with you Mitt.

I live in Michigan and it seriously disturbs me that Mitt Romney of all people said this. If the big three don’t get this bailout you can kiss this state goodbye! This state is already struggling, and besides the millions of people employeed directly by the companies there are millions of others that are indirectly employed by companies that make parts for them. My father worked for GM my step-father worked for GM (both retired) my mother works for a company that makes parts for the big three, and my father in law works for a company that also is connected to them. I work at a restaurant and 90% of my costumers are connected to the car industry, and I live in a small town 80 miles north of Detroit.
I think the bailout should only come with conditions, and the companies need major reconstruction, but if they go under this whole state is gone. We already have staggering forclosure rates, higher than the national average, unpresident unemployment rate. If the big three goes under you might as well give up our electoral voptes cause this state is gone!

OK Mitt are you prepared to offer JOB TRAINING for the 3 Million Americans that will be structurally unemployed by this act ?????? and are you willing to pay the unemployment insurance and welfare benfits for said unemployed when they can’t find work to make ends meet ???????

Mitt is right.

And the government is not responsible for finding jobs for people.

The unions have ruined and spoiled this industry. But this is America; why doesn’t some up and comer look at how successful auto makers are running their companies? The free market is the answer- not to force taxpayers to pay for a failed formula.

Bail them out so they can still fly around in their fancy jets and million dollar bonuses. Sure, but let them take the hit in the bonus section to pay back the money owed at no cost to the consumer.

I honestly don’t know if they should be bailed out or not, but I do know that I have questions regarding it. Didn’t GM report some time ago that they were going further and further in the red with their vehicles? What changes did they make since then to try to help themselves out? And I heard Barnie Frank, this morning, say that come March they could possibly qualify for additional funding. How much are we actually talking about for it is more than the 25? Before I, personally, can be okay with it, I need lots of answers to lots of questions.

Why should the auto industry get benefits that other industries do not? I work for a large fortune 500 company in CA. If I am let go, I get 2 months pay and 1 month health coverage. I would need to re-train for another industry. Life is tough.

Yes, the management at the automakers is terrible. The pay of executives should be based on company performance. An executive who is let go should get the same benefits as other employees. The use of luxury corporate jet is a non-negotiable part of these executives’ contracts and they used it to beg for the bailouts!

Hourly wages, benfits, executive compensation, restructuring and everything else should be on the table. The only way it can happen is in Bankrputcy.

d, I feel for you. It’s not the assembly line worker’s fault that the auto industry has been so poorly managed. My opinion is that the responsibility of this crisis (which has been going on long before the current credit crisis), rests directly with both management AND the union. Keeping the auto industry running with the same infrastructure is just prolonging the inevitable – that the BIG 3 will continue the decline. Instead of giving the auto industry the “bail out”, I’d rather set up funds for re-education and job creation for the individual workers to move into areas that will work for America in the long run – such as new energy exploration, off-shore drilling, even organic farming. America has to choose NOT to compete in an industry that they have screwed up, all on heir own. The opportunity starts with stopping the bleeding. Good luck, and head up. America is resilient and you are too.

I watch this on TV, read articales and one question keeps coming to mind. If you check the pay of the Top 10 of all three companies and total each companies Top 10 pay, WOW, I bet you could put a major dent in their debits. Also, when was the last time each on the the Top 10 got a paise raise? These are and will always be problems that exsist in major companies and their should be a cap on their pay and push it down to the lower levels. Their overstock on cars should not be allowed to reach a specific percentage. Many more thoughts on this…..

news of the CEO’s of the Big 3 flying into DC in their private lear jets makes me sick to my stomach and settles it for me at least. let ‘em sink…

You know I don’t agree with the bailout but if they bailout bankers and lenders i think the auto makers should be also bailout too – but when we bailout we have to make sure that those chief executives salary have to cut like any executive $125-$150K. This is to all chief executive that we bailout and some of then should be faired! But we have to bailout bankers and automakers – even thought we should have help people who strike hard on this economy.

Do you really think they want the bail-out? I mean they look like they have “deer-in the headlight – looks” on t.v. -” like this is all news to them ” – they can’t possibly be that stupid- have they been listening at all to anybody? Maybe they want to file for bankruptcy and then be free to renegotiate their U.A.W. contracts? They can’t possibly be making millions of dollars a year and appear to be that stupid on t.v. – can they? Kinda sad. Why do they have to fly in private airplanes – are the Toyota executives in hot pursuit, are the Honda people trying to steal their secrets in mid-flight – or maybe Nissan is following them around reading their emails – renegotiation of U.A.W. contracts is what they are after This is a ploy and they are playing crazy like a fox!

“It’s not the assembly line worker’s fault that the auto industry has been so poorly managed”.

Certainly the management that permitted UAW wheel lug nut installers to make $28 an hour deserve blame, but just like the people making $50K a year that took on $500K mortgages, the overpriced UAW help had this day of reckoning coming just as the housing flippers did. Only delusional thinking could convince the UAW that their semi skilled labor was worth doctors salaries – and only incompetent management would sign up to accommodate them. The car industry jobs are gone whether via bankruptcy or attrition, so for Detroit and America there’s either pain today or pain tomorrow – but there is still going to be pain. That’s the sad truth of it….

I agree that bailout is a bad idea, but why do politicians think that a temporary bridge to keep the economy afloat is a waste of taxpayer dollars? They claim the auto industry is “broken”, but all we’ve heard the past two years in the presidential campaign is that government is broken. I’d suggest we eliminate a portion of the earmarks that Obama claims is immaterial. We give that to the auto industry and at least we all won’t lose trillions in the markets. Then we try to figure out why we, as taxpayers, should continue to fund the lawmakers who are “broken”. I want a job where after 6 years I receive full pension and medical benfits for life, even if I’m a failure. They complain about bonuses to Wall Street, but don’t they receive the same? Perhaps if these lawmakers had main street problems, they’d understand the pain of their actions.

As much as I don’t want to see the ill effects on the economy caused by a “Big 3″ bankruptcy, I believe government should should “just say no” and stay out of the free market and private industry! After all, a free market is suppose to be, and will be, self correcting. Unfortunately, the Big 3 have had their “eye off the ball” for years, focusing more on excessive union contracts, executive benefits, and doing business status quo, then they have put time or design efforts into building a more efficient, technically superior product that the US consumer actually puts at the top of their want list. Bottom line-get in touch with our needs and build a higher quality, longer lasting, more efficient vehicle at a more competitive price, and I for one, will be there to buy it! – If it takes a chapter 11 restructuring for the Big 3 to cut out all of the “corporate fat” and become competitive again, so be it. -That’s the beauty of how the free market works!