Why The Big 3 Bailout Won't Work: $1.67 Gas

LA TIMES -- Am I the only one insulted by the charade of the Big Three chief executives pleading their cases before congressional leaders who don't even understand that investment in green technology and measures to avoid financial collapse in the short run are completely at odds? How exactly is investment in high-mileage vehicle production going to cut operating expenses and increase revenues now?

Sadly, congressional concern is less about the well-being and endurance of the companies and their workers per se than it is about keeping those companies afloat to serve their own political objectives. Half the congressional Democratic caucus wants to compel the automakers to pump out green cars, regardless of the fact that they are money losers for Detroit. They're still too expensive to produce, and Americans are even less keen on consuming them as gas prices continue to plummet.

~Cato Institute's Daniel J. Ikenson


WALL STREET JOURNAL -- Leave it to Bob Lutz, GM's voluble vice chairman, to puncture the unreality of the auto bailout he himself has been championing. In an email to Ward's Auto World, he notes an obvious flaw in Congress's rescue plan now taking shape: The fuel-efficient "green" cars GM, Ford and Chrysler profess to be thrilled to be developing at Congress's behest will be unsellable unless gas prices are much higher than today's.

"Very few people will want to change what has been their 'nationality-given' right to drive big and bigger if the price of gas is $1.50 or $2.00 or even $2.50," Mr. Lutz explained. "Those prices will put the CAFE-mandated manufacturers at war with their customers -- and no one will win in that battle."

Translation: To become "viable," as Congress chooses crazily to understand the term, the Big Three are setting out to squander billions on products that will have to be dumped on consumers at a loss.

~Holman W. Jenkins, Jr.