Word: auto
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Dates: during 2000-2009
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...proposed auto-industry bailout was discussed, however. Paulson met with General Motors chief Rick Wagoner in October, and he held conversations with Keith Hennessey, the head of Bush's National Economic Council (NEC), Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez and others over the phone in the days after the election. Yet there was not sufficient disagreement between the men to warrant a full meeting...
Democrats are emboldened by their election victory but don't yet enjoy the broad margins they will have in the new session that begins in January. Yet there are high-stakes issues that can't wait. This week Congress will try to approve a bridge loan for the auto industry and a stimulus package that includes unemployment benefits, Medicaid help for the states and some assistance for small businesses. House Banking Committee chairman Barney Frank will call on Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson for a roasting on how the $700 billion bailout - passed...
...first visit to the White House, President-elect Barack Obama asked President George W. Bush to support giving some aid to the tanking auto industry but was rebuffed. A month ago, the proposal might have received serious consideration, but the atmosphere inside the Administration has changed now that the most dangerous part of the crisis appears to have passed. "There wasn't much of a debate" among Bush's top economic advisers about using part of the bailout money to help automakers, says a senior Treasury Department official. Of the first $350 billion released by Congress last month under...
...main argument within the Administration against using TARP money for an auto-industry loan is that the automakers' problems are viewed as systemic, not short-term. "No one in this building or in this Administration has a plan for the long-term viability of the auto industry," says the senior Treasury official. "It's just not on the shelf." Without such a plan, the Administration has decided that any short-term loan should come from existing money from Congress for the auto industry's modernization...
Democrats in Congress who want new money for the bridge loan consider the proposal unlikely to pass in the face of an expected Republican filibuster. Some in the party would not mind if one or two of the auto companies go under, reasoning that it would be easier to force them to restructure along strict environmentally correct lines. But there's concern that bankruptcy could lead to a broader economic fallout. "Because of the condition of the credit market, there's some concern the car companies would have to liquidate," says one senior Democratic aide...