Auto Execs Make Bailout Case to Skeptical Lawmakers

RAY SUAREZ:

Round two in automakers' efforts to persuade lawmakers to throw them a lifeline. Judy Woodruff has our report.

JUDY WOODRUFF:

Two weeks after they were roundly criticized for flying corporate jets to Washington to ask for federal help, Robert Nardelli of Chrysler, Rick Wagoner of G.M., and Alan Mulally of Ford all traded wings for wheels and drove to Capitol Hill today.

All three were back before the Senate Banking Committee to ask for aid, up to $34 billion combined in loans and lines of credit.

Today, there were three questions on the table: Should the money be provided? Where would it come from? And would the companies agree to government oversight?

Democrats and the White House remain deadlocked on the source of the money.

Committee Chair Senator Chris Dodd first invited the acting head of the Government Accountability Office, who testified that the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department also have the authority to help the auto industry, Treasury by using some of the $700 billion passed by Congress two months ago.

Dodd said time is short.

SEN. CHRIS DODD:

In my view, we need to act, not for the purpose of protecting a handful of companies. If that were the extent of the issue, I would let them fail.

I acknowledge those who advocate such a course on the assumption that pressure from the outside will produce the desired results. My concern with such an approach is that it plays Russian roulette with the entire economy of the United States. Inaction is no solution.