Why lecture them and not AIG? Even though I don’t think any of the companies or financial institutions who lay off workers while their execs spend millions on extravagance and take millions in salaries and bonuses should be bailed out with tax payer money, I’d rather see a manufacturing company get it than a damned insurance company.

Not too bright taking private jets to ask for taxpayers money. How did AIG get to the meetings? Bet they didn’t walk there! My husband works as a mechanic and business is really bad. It’s a good thing we have his military retirement to fall back on. Even still, things are tough. I think a bailout is a good idea for the auto makers but I think there should be no blank check. I want to know where the money is going and I want to make sure that the cars being produced are fuel efficent cars. No more gas guzzlers and huge SUV’S.

I’m just excited to finally see a clear-cut debate going on around this issue. Is this karma for what Henry Ford did to the blacksmith industry? Not exactly. With everyone’s pants being held up by some IT gizmo or other, we’ve all forgotten how to tighten our belts. For all I know, a private jet is more cost-effective in the long run than than round-trip commerical flights every whipstitch. I am fairly confident that these manufacturer’s have flown in the face of America’s concern about global climate change and toxic emissions. Everybody’s paradigm of personal mobility needs to change, and in the process, some businesses will fail. But others will emerge. People, human beings, can be most creative when survival is at stake. I think the big three will limp along…somehow…until Obama takes office. I see no reason to bankrupt the treasury just to keep pollutants on the road.

There are millions of auto-related jobs that are going to be lost because of these greedy idiots. Their companies can’t wait for a new administration because of lack of funds, and they will probably have to go belly up. Millions of people because of the greed of a few. When I was office manager for all those years and our cash flow was very low at times, my boss would pay the employees and not pay himself. That is also how my dad ran his business. So, as far as I’m concerned, they can take their millions and turn them back in to their companies they helped run into the ground. And, then they can walk out, leaving their mega-million dollar bonuses and walk home. If there is not a plan to do something about the big 3, you are going to see millions of people without work and health plans. Until I read our local paper, I had no idea how many auto-related manufacturing companies there were in our state. It will knock the stuffings out of our already challenged state.

While I agree with what they told them it strikes me as the pot calling the kettle black, Congress is one of the biggest spenders and wasters of money there is and they get a vacation coming up.

Do these 3 men, who clearly are disconnected from the real world, not have public relations advisors to save them from themselves? To fly to Washington on private planes is the height of stupidity! It’s no surprise they have continued to manufacture gas guzzling SUV’s and not invested in more fuel efficient alternatives. For that gaffe alone, shareholders should demand that they step down.

Everyone deserves a pointing to including Barney Frank and all of Congress. Why don’t they take a 2-week break this time? Why do the auto companies get lambasted and not Wall Street? It took people on the Internet and the media to uncover the AIG junket right after they got the money. Sure it was planned way before their bailout, but come on! Tighten the belt - EVERYONE. And Diana, I hear you there. I’ve been a business owner and never paid myself over my employees. I always felt responsible for their well-being and in tight times, no dough for me. How on earth do these CEO’s and upper management of all of these companies continue to pay themselves their exorbitant payroll, bonuses, and expense reports? Did they all drink the Kenneth Lay koolaid? (I’d love to see an expose on the expense reports from the last 12 month of all of these greedy fools.) Anyway, the job losses that will incur will be absolutely detrimental and guess who suffers the least? Those three men sitting in front of Congress asking for spare change.

I think congress is just showboating- making a big deal about corporate jets. Congress knows that due to security CEO’s often use private jets. . I don’t think bankruptcy is an option Banks aren’t lending. If they go under we will go into a depression. The auto industry is not just about manufacturing cars. I think the treatment of the auto industry has been different because of the union conection, blue collar if you will. I think salary quotes are misleading. The middle class is under seige. Benefits such as retirement and health care made the middle class. People were sold 401 k.s as a panacea.

what room does dana perino have to pass the buck to congress when paulson or bush could act now? it is dangerous when the lame duck decides not to swim during a crisis. maybe my reading comprehension isn’t what it should be, but the only named company that can weather the storm until 2009 is ford.

I loved watching the hearings on the automakers, it was so entertaining. Congress (it was apparent) found glee in sticking it to them in terms of how they live, as with their private planes. And rightly so, the reality is they don’t have to fly in private planes, they CHOOSE to fly in private planes. I know of top executives of companies that bring in far more than they do, millions of millions of dollars, who travel first class on commercial flights as opposed to owning their own planes. And guess what, they always get from point A to point B safely and in one piece. My issue with the big 3 is that they seem to be missing the point. They aren’t offering up any concrete ideas that display how they will run their operations differently that will allow for profit and put them in line to compete with foreign made cars. That’s what is important. If we are going to help them out now, unless we know exactly where the money will be utilized, it will be tantamount to no more than a bandage. Then next year when they claim poverty and seek more financing, everyone is going to be up in arms. NOW is the time to be up in arms and demand that they prove they need the help and what they are going to do with it.

I want to give testimony. I am driving a 21 year old Plymouth and it still gets through DEQ. So they weren’t all JUNK! Also they built gas effecient cars in the 70s, I owned one called a Pacer built by American Motors and the american public wouldn’t buy them. That car could carry six full sized adults and got 35 miles per gallon. I was told that their investment in that fuel effecient car broke the company!

I am a retired GM worker. I worked there from the 70’s to 2006. I’ve seen first-hand how much quality has changed in their product. When I started we use to check only one part per 150 peices, now it’s every peice. I own a 1997 Aurora Oldsmoble and other than a fan problem and an oil pump replacement recently, it has been trouble free and a joy to drive. As far as what is happening to the business, I’m sad to say I’m not surprised. GM has been in a rip and burn mode for some time. One thing I’m not sure about and no one else I know is sure of either, is how much of GM is still here in the U.S.and how much now is overseas. When they talk about GM going bankrupt, do they mean the whole corperation or just the North American Operations. Those who are not as close to this will not remember that GM has sold off huge parts of the business over the last 15 years. First it was EDS then it was Hughs. In 1999 they sold all of their components and production plants.Causing them to shrink from close to a milloin hourly employees to around 300 thousand. Recently they let go of GMAC. Through all of this the workers were constantly pushed to improve their productivily and asked for concessions. While Ford and the japanese have paired down their salary population in proportion to their hourly, GM has not. They have 4 times more salary than Toyota and twice as many as Ford in ratio to hourly employees. In one of our local papers they had a cartoon of Toyota in one boat with seven people; 2 salary folks yelling out to row and 5 workers rowing; and GM in the other boat with 5 salary folks yelling and only 2 workers rowing. If anyone is wondering why GM is in a worse state than most, here is the reason as I understand it. When I hired in, a small portion of my hourly wage was put towards my pention. Over the years when the corperation was doing well, the amount of retirees were small in proportion to the workforce. The retirement account seemed inexhaustable. In the 1990’s it was around $51 billion. GM started tapping it to fund their new ventures.( Does this not sound familiar e.g. social security system). Soon, between the skyrocketing price of healthcare and the huge influx of new retirees and GM not paying back to the fund,our pension accounts became grossly underfunded. When I started paying into my pention there where no 401K’s offered and where some companies offered matching stock options, our company did not. We were assured that our pentions could not be touched, which is no longer true. I feel the american public as well as autoworkers are in a loosing proposition. GM would love to loose their legacy issues( that’s how they refer to retirees and older workers). Going bankrupt would allow them to dump their obligation to the government to pay suplimental pention guarantees and send most of us in crisis on healthcare who are not 62 years old. I hope that if the bailout does come, that there will be hard and restictive use on how and where GM can use this money. Until they repay their obligation to America they should not be allowed to be able to divest capital from the U. S or invest outside of it.

here a ugly thought i bet if all the CEO would fork over there high bonuses they could bail them self out!!

i’ve explained the ‘shelters’ incs. have—-but not again—-