Obama Wants to Bailout Automakers

Knight-Ridder reports:

Trying to jump-start gains in auto fuel efficiency after decades of inaction, Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., is proposing an unusual swap for the Big Three U.S. carmakers: Washington would pay some of Detroit's multibillion-dollar health costs in exchange for it making cars that get higher gasoline mileage.

The federal government would pay 10 percent of the $6.7 billion in annual health costs for retirees that are weighing down General Motors, Ford and Chrysler if they'll commit to building more fuel-efficient cars, Obama proposed in a speech Tuesday before a panel at the National Governors Association conference. He called it a "win-win proposal for the industry."

Obama, a charismatic freshman senator, is under growing pressure from liberal Democrats to raise his profile nationally. His choice of this issue as his first claim to national leadership is revealing. It features a traditional liberal's approach of government help for a troubled blue-collar industry and environmental conservation, but it adds a requirement that the industry meet a performance standard in exchange. Democrats haven't pushed this kind of public-private "industrial policy" since the 1980s.

If you aren't in the politically connected auto industry Obama doesn't have a federal bailout for you.Who knows if this is just a dry run to try and bailout large public pension funds in Illinois?