Nov. 14, 2008
Washington To Detroit: Drop Dead
U.S. Government Is Reluctant to Save American Automakers
-
Play CBS Video Video Automakers Running On Empty A bailout for the auto industry may be looming, but there may not be enough money to save them, reports Anthony Mason. Maggie Rodriguez talks to Mich. Gov. Jennifer Granholm about the ripple effect.
-
Video Auto Industry Won't Go Down Washington knows the significance of keeping the auto industry above water, but the increasing number of layoffs does not bode well for the future. Priya David has more.
-
Video Auto Industry On Its Knees The big three auto companies and workers' union met with Congress to request a bailout, citing a catastrophe if the industry is left alone during the economic crisis, reports Cynthia Bowers.
-
(AP GraphicsBank)
-
In The Spotlight Harry Smith Reporting The Early Show co-anchor Harry Smith offers commentary for CBSNews.com.
Senate banking committee chairman Chris Dodd says the chances that Congress can come up with the $25 billion U.S. car companies say they need to stay alive are slim to none.
Too much opposition, especially from Republicans who espouse a kind of economic Darwinism that suggests that businesses that deserve to die, should die, and will be replaced by better more efficient ones.
One wonders though if Congress over the years hasn't been complicit in Detroit's demise.
Passing laws that enabled lax fuel efficiency standards, Detroit's congressional lobby thought it was helping saving jobs.
Instead the effect was just the opposite.
If Congress had done the right thing in the first place, Detroit would have been in the habit of building cars and trucks with world leading fuel efficiency standards.
Now it's a scramble to survive and time is running out.
Brother can you spare a few billion?
© MMVIII, CBS Interactive, Inc. All Rights Reserved.
