Here we go again.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said Tuesday she was confident that lawmakers would consider "emergency and limited financial assistance" for the auto industry under the $700 billion bailout measure that passed Congress in October. She urged the outgoing Bush administration to support a compromise.

"In order to prevent the failure of one or more of the major American automobile manufacturers, Congress and the Bush administration must take immediate action," said Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-California.

If you bought a brand new Chevrolet Corvette last year, your $47,000 investment is worth about $30,000 today; just by the virtue of driving it around for a year.

However, if you spent that same $47,000 on General Motors’ stock last year, your investment is worth about $4,500 today. What’s wrong with a company whose products are worth more than the company making them? Everything.

Now, it seems our Federal government is readying a bail-out, based on the idea that we don’t want to lose all of those jobs. This, on the heels of the billions we gave the financial community for making bad loans. Now, we’re going to throw good money after bad and give it to some more companies who couldn’t find their ass with both hands.

"Once we cross the divide from financial institutions to individual corporations, truly, where would you draw the line?" asked Senator Jeff Sessions, R-Alabama.
Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm said Wednesday that the crisis in the auto industry is urgent, arguing that "the national economy rests on this."
"This industry supports one in 10 jobs in the country," Granholm said Wednesday on CBS' "Early Show." "If this industry is allowed to fail, there would be a ripple effect throughout the nation."
She added: "This government decided that it was going to step in and throw $700 billion at the financial sector. We're just asking for a fraction of that."

Just a fraction? Well, that’s OK as long as it’s just a fraction, right? Anything can be justified by comparing it to government spending. Suddenly, 100 billion dollars is a fraction.

Executives with GM, Ford and Chrysler LLC and the president of the United Auto Workers union pressed Pelosi and Harry Reid to provide an immediate $25 billion loan to keep the companies operating and a separate $25 billion to help cover future health care obligations for retirees and their dependents.

Wait a minute. For all of you who oppose a National health care plan, ask yourself how you feel about the Federal government giving a company money so that they can continue to provide health care for their retirees. Is that really what the government is supposed to be doing?

At some point, don’t you have to examine the policies of the American automakers and ask yourself why Toyota, Nissan, Volkswagen and Honda are doing so well? Perhaps it’s because the foreign companies have chosen to make fuel-efficient cars and hybrid vehicles while the Americans have spent the past 10 years making trucks and Sport Utility Vehicles and selling them to us because we think we need them.

Now, they’re playing us all for suckers because they probably knew that the government would bail them out, just like they did Chrysler back in the 1970s when they made the same stupid mistakes.

Meanwhile, would your life have changed if you hadn't been able to buy a Chrysler product over the past 30 years?

Not at all.