Allies launch bailout blitz for Big Three

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By David R. Sands

Major business groups and local officials whose communities depend on the auto industry Tuesday joined the Big Three automakers in a major lobbying blitz to pry tens of billions of dollars in federal aid from a reluctant Congress.

Rallies were held, letters to lawmakers were sent and labor leaders called publicly for assistance as the heads of General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC presented detailed plans on how they would use the bailout funds.

All warned of the dire consequences of inaction.

GM, in its submission, insisted that it needed $4 billion by the end of the year just to survive, part of an $18 billion aid request.

"Absent such assistance, the company will default in the near term, very likely precipitating a total collapse of the domestic industry," the nation's largest automaker said.

With Ford and Chrysler seeking a combined $16 billion in aid and lines of credit, the nominal cost of the industry bailout is already shooting past the original $25 billion discussed last month.

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The chief executives pledged major new investments if they get the loans they are seeking, and they promised to keep their corporate jets parked back home in Detroit when they arrive in Washington late this week. Two of the CEOs said they would travel to the nation's capital via domestic-made hybrid cars to show they had learned from their public relations mistakes.

Major U.S. business lobbies, including the U.S. Chamber of Commerce, the Financial Services Roundtable and the National Association of Manufacturers, are supporting the industry's case, as are the United Auto Workers and other labor unions closely tied to Detroit's success.

An industry support group billing itself as the "Engine of Democracy" announced plans for a Capitol Hill rally later this week with representatives from every state and the District in support of the bailout, in an attempt to dramatize the broad impact of a failure of any of the major U.S. auto firms.