Auto companies want a bailout?  They  better accept new people along with the taxpayer cash.  Consider the lack of judgement of the failures now in charge.

For instance, what about the current GM answer to our oil problems?  The Volt a long promised, but never mass produced plugin hybrid.

It's nothing but a redesigned, higher hp EV-1, with less battery range and a backup generator.

A real economy car is needed though.  Carbon fiber for weight reduction, one-third the 160 hp of the volt, with 40 miles worth of battery range and a much smaller backup generator.

That would do it.  Revive US auto manufacturing and start dropping oil demand gradually year after year as these vehicles replace ICE gas guzzlers.  That yearly demand reduction would keep oil prices stable and put the power back in our foreign policy and trade negotiations.

With the job restoration, confidence would return and the economy would recover.

Could the board room mates and execs now in charge of the big three US auto companies acomplish this?  Doubtful.  New leadership is needed.  That should be part of any bailout for GM, Ford, and Chrysler.

We have a new administration, now we need new corporate leasdership.  Auto companies need to have lower oil use as their main goal, rather than serve, as they do now, as surrogates of the oil industry. 

Perpetual gas guzzling is the present goal.  They direct auto companies for the benefit of the oil companies that they and their cronies also control.