Gas Guzzler producing Big 3 all headed for bankruptcy

The Senate's top Democrat has called off a planned vote this week on a $25 billion auto industry bailout. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said that he wanted to figure out some way to help Detroit’s struggling Big Three but that efforts to do so had stalled.

The White House and congressional Republicans rejected Democrats' plan to dip into the $700 billion Wall Street rescue fund to finance loans to U.S. automakers – to save the producers of Americans huge gas guzzlers so they can live to produce them again.

A bipartisan group from auto industry states is working to cut a deal on a scaled-down aid package. If agreement can be reached, Reid said the Senate could still vote on it as part of a measure to extend jobless benefits.

Detroit's Big Three CEOs had returned to the hot seat Wednesday, fending off tough questions about how long they can survive without government help during a House hearing.

The CEOs slightly shifted their tone during a House Financial Service Committee hearing today, trying to answer key questions raised during the Senate Banking Committee hearing.

Chrysler LLC CEO Robert Nardelli pledged "full financial transparency with the government" to receive aid.

Nardelli said the company has burned through $5 billion in the first nine months of the year and had just $6.1 billion on hand on Sept. 30.

"We could be dangerously close by the end of this quarter," Nardelli told the House panel.

General Motors Corp. chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner said under a worst case scenario the company could need $4 billion to $5 billion in loans. With its share of the $25 billion, GM would have a "good shot to make it through next year."

In our opinion the government should let all three of these incompetent companies fold and let Honda, Nissan, and Toyota take over the better factories and hire the best people they can. The Japanese can put a lot of these laid off American workers to work to produce automobiles that people actually want to buy.

One has to look at the grossly huge Ford Expedition, Chevy Tahoe and Suburban and the Dodge Durango to understand just how blind the Big 3 are with regard to producing sensible cars and trucks.