I supported at least the initial Federal government loans and guarantees for Detroit to buy time while a more in depth evaluation could be made of the long-term viability American automobile industry. The first installment of about 4 billion dollars has just been released to GM and the question of long-term viability is now being answered (but not in the way I had anticipated, with careful analysis and detailed projections).
One of the mantras chanted during the tin-cup cup congressional hearings was that the jobs at the US automotive suppliers would be endangered if GM/Chrysler were allowed to go b/k.
This was at least plausible, but the data now in appears to indicate that a major part of the survival/restructuring plan by the US "big three" involves "throwing their vendors under the bus" in order to obtain short term cost savings.
Recent media reports indicate that foreign suppliers have been contracted by Detroit automotive, for greatly increased amounts of specialty and standard fasteners, and molds/tools/dies.
So much for the pious cant and rhetoric about the need of taxpayer funds to "rescue" the Detroit big three both in order to preserve jobs there ==>and at their suppliersand to rescue the foreign automotive component suppliers and mold/tool makers, not the domestic US industries.