San Fran Nan Wants to Bail Out Detroit

Build cars nobody wants and the Feds will bail you out:

The House will convene next week to vote on a plan to provide emergency cash to the nation's battered automobile industry, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said today, but it was unclear whether a federal bailout for the automakers could win support in the more closely divided Senate or from the White House.

In a written statement issued this afternoon, Pelosi said that because the failure of one or more of the Detroit automakers "would have a devastating impact on our economy, particularly on the men and women who work in that industry, Congress and the Bush Administration must take immediate action."

The debate over additional government aid to the automakers has become more urgent in recent days. General Motors, in particular, is facing a dire financial situation, and analysts fear a possible bankruptcy. Earlier this week, President-elect Barack Obama urged President Bush to approve immediate aid to the automakers, but the White House has not committed to doing so.

Want to fix the U.S. auto industry? Here's some ideas:

1. Build better cars.
2. Build models people actually want to buy.
3. Pay less to build them. If you have to dump some union contracts and stop paying guys $50 an hour to bolt bumpers onto Buicks, so be it. A job with less pay and benefits might be better than no job at all. Especially in Michigan.
4. Charge less to sell them (see #3 above).
5. If none of those things work, get President Obama to ban the import of foreign cars. Problem solved. He can use some of that Obamessiah warm and fuzzy feelings to smooth it over with the Japanese, Germans, South Koreans, etc. After all, the world loves us again.

I'm available if GM wants me to take over the company.