Well, someone got their deal...

And the least fiscally conservative Republican president... ever... had to be the one to pull the trigger. The only question is who really got what in the quid-pro-quo at the intersection of Washington politics, Union politics, and big corporate politics.

"Government has a responsibility to safeguard the broader health and stability of our economy," Bush said. "If we were to allow the free market to take its course now, it would almost certainly lead to disorderly bankruptcy and liquidation for the automakers."

"In the midst of a financial crisis and a recession, allowing the U.S. auto industry to collapse is not a responsible course of action," he added.

As reported in Money Magazine online US automakers GM and Chrysler will get the last $13.4 billion of the available financial bailout set aside. They can also ask for more when the 2nd $350 billion is released by a far more liberal congress and Whitehouse next month. The first half of the $700 billion allocated by Congress at the start of this fiasco is gone. That's a $1,500 donation from each adult in the US to bailout financial services corporations; companies that make money by trading money and produce nothing but more debt for us.

Dr. Mark Perry's blog post from July of 2007 references Forbes numbers to highlight why the US automakers need a bailout.

The average UAW worker with a high school degree earns 57.6% more compensation than the average university professor with a Ph.D. (see graph above, click to enlarge), and 52.6% more than the average worker at Toyota, Honda or Nissan.