Jeff Polhill

Excerpt from the East Valley Tribune newspaper December 9, 2008. By Julie Hirschfeld Davis, The Associated Press

Congressional Democrats and the White House worked to resolve their last disputes Monday over terms of a $15 billion bailout for U.S. automakers - complete with a “car czar” to oversee the industry’s reinvention of itself - that’s expected to come to a vote as early as Wednesday.

Top democrats gave the White House their proposal, however the Bush administration gave it a cool response, saying the measure didn’t do enough to ensure that only viable companies would get long term federal help. Negotiators were working into Monday night to resolve differences. Dana Perino, the White House press secretary, said, “We’ve made a lot of progress in recent days… We’ll continue to work with members on both sides of the aisle to achieve legislation that protects the good faith investment by taxpayers.” President Bush said it was “hard to tell” if a deal was imminent because definite conditions had to be met. In an interview with ABC’s “Nightline” President Bush stated, “These are important companies … we just don’t want to put good money after bad.”

The crux of the White House’s concern is that there may not be enough clear, immediate protection for taxpayers if a company is not meeting its own promises for long-term viability after review by the president’s overseer. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Democrat-California, remarked that restructuring would require tough concessions from management, labor, creditors and others. Even if White House and the democratic leaders do reach agreement on the auto bailout, Senator Carl Levin, Democrat-Michigan, said that getting roughly 15 Republicans needed to support the plan was an uphill battle.