Bilking Billions

In a recent news article, Chrysler LLC announced that they expect to become viable by this spring. Whew, I thought to myself, that’s a relief for the American taxpayer. Until I read four more paragraphs and realized that part of their viability plan includes an additional $3 billion from the government, on top of the $4 billion the government’s already given them.

The word from General Motors isn’t any better. They’ve asked for $18 billion from Congress, with $13.4 billion already allocated by the Treasury. GM isn’t sure if they’ll need the whole $18 billion, but I guess it’s better to be safe than sorry.

It seems that, with the exception of Ford, the U.S. automakers business model isn't to build a better mousetrap for their customer, but to build a better bailout for themselves.