Detroit Big 3 ask for government welfare

Detroit's three automakers are urging Congress to make as much as $35 billion to $40 billion in low-cost loans available during the next two to three years to assure that the companies survive long enough to retool and build a new generation of fuel-efficient vehicles.

Chief executives Rick Wagoner, Alan Mulally and Robert Nardelli — of General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC, respectively — talked Friday and agreed that access to capital is their most critical short-term need during this volatile period of high fuel prices and slumping SUV and truck sales, sources told the Free Press.

Top lobbyists for GM, Ford and Chrysler followed up Sunday with phone calls to leaders of Michigan's congressional delegation — including U.S. Sens. Debbie Stabenow and Carl Levin, plus Reps. John Dingell and Sander Levin — to drive the point home. All three Detroit companies are hemorrhaging cash and having trouble borrowing.

On Monday, Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama proposed $4 billion to help Detroit's automakers build the cars of the future. Obama's advisers called it a first step. Stabenow told me some of the money would go to battery research, but a big chunk of it could be used to help leverage loans of more than $10 billion for retooling plants. More at Detroit Free Press