Stalemate dims prospects for $25B US auto bailout

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(Agencies)
Updated: 2008-11-18 08:33

"We believe this assistance should come from the program created by Congress that was specifically designed to assist the automakers — from the $25 billion Department of Energy loan program," Perino said.

She said the $700 billion rescue program "was never intended by Congress to assist automakers or other sectors of the economy. It was solely intended to deal with what is an ongoing credit crisis in our financial sector." Perino also said that any new legislative effort to help the big carmakers should require that those manufacturers are viable companies, ones willing to restructure themselves for the long term.

President-elect Barack Obama said he believes aid for the auto industry is needed but that it should be provided as part of a long-term plan — not simply as a blank check.

"For the auto industry to completely collapse would be a disaster in this kind of environment," Obama said in a "60 Minutes" interview aired Sunday night on CBS. "So my hope is that over the course of the next week, between the White House and Congress, the discussions are shaped around providing assistance but making sure that that assistance is conditioned on labor, management, suppliers, lenders, all of the stakeholders coming together with a plan — what does a sustainable U.S. auto industry look like?"

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