Pick your poison

After the US House of Representatives moved to pass a $14 billion package to aid the country’s faltering auto makers, the scene shifts to the Senate, where a few Republican stalwarts are all that stands in the way of making the bailout a reality.

I have already, here and here and here, criticized this bailout legislation. It is unconscionable that we would further burden our children and grandchildren with yet more debt to rescue the failed auto manufacturers.

Unlike some who oppose the measure, at least I fully admit up front that allowing Detroit to fail will introduce significant new economic troubles for us, but better that than the alternative. This $14 billion could be used to provide immediate job re-training and unemployment benefits to the hundreds of thousands who will lose their jobs in a Chapter 11 restructuring of the industry.

It has already been asserted by Detroit and its allies in Congress that this $14 billion is merely the tip of the iceberg. Given our recent experience with AIG’s bottomless pit of bailout money, I would hope that the US Senate would say enough’s enough and force General Motors and Chrysler into bankruptcy, which is where they belong.