The Chrysler bailout was a $1.5 billion loan that was repaid – a far cry from handing multiple billions to an almost random group of banks and companies.

It is strange to me that you and many people don’t understand how giving trillions of public dollars to private companies is a great way to fill a government with corruption. It is not limited to Democrats, but you only need to look at the Obama cabinet to find people who are enriching themselves and gathering power to themselves through TARP and bailouts. Rahm Emmanuel, Robert Rubin, Lawrence Summers have all made multiple millions of dollars in the banking industry very recently. Chris Dodd and Mr. Obama himself recieved 6 figure donations (investments?) from AIG and other banks – even though the latter was only a senator for 18 months.

Furthermore, our government only seems to give money to failing businesses. Why are they propping up businesses that have a proven track record of incompetence? If you are throwing public money around why not make it easier for well-run, efficient companies to thrive and grow?

This administration is seeking greater power over our financial system and big business than ever before. Big business, especially businesses who can’t turn a profit, are now using the tools of the government for their own gain. The US Constitution was put in place, in part to protect the citizens from an over-reaching government. There is an old saying that is true today – “absolute power corrupts absolutely”. We might want to coin another saying “the government that invests in bankruptcy goes bankrupt”.

If a business is run poorly and can’t turn a profit – then it should go out of business. If the USA goes bankrupt, you in Canada will certainly feel it.

This type of bailout is not without a lot of precedent (ie Chrysler & Iaccoca) – where exactly in the constitution does it say that the government can’t help out a company?

The US Constitution was violated when public tax dollars were given to a private company. It was further violated when the President of the US basically fired a CEO of a private company.

This is a very slippery slope.

as far as Lewenza is concerned, he’s getting his 15 minutes of “fame”… He and the union workers will need to wake-up & smell the coffee… If noone buys your cars because of costs, I don’t care how good your union is, your business is bankrupt… Now tell me how your union will help you when that happens…

I totally flipped when I heard him say that they weren’t open to new discussions… This guy is more of a farce than a union rep and I don’t know what kind of stuff he’s smoking but it’s keeping him in a LALA land that is really out of this world!!

Of course if your model gets axed then that might be a problem.