Bailout Watch 226: Senate Reaches Compromise on Bailout Bill

MSNBC is reporting that auto-state senators’ aides say they’ve reached a compromise to throw money at “speed emergency loans” to Chrysler, Ford and GM. And speed is the drug of choice here. After The Big 2.8’s CEO shot themselves in their collective feet in front of a Senate committee charged with rubber-stamping the $25b deal, Republicans and Democrats knocked some heads together. The peacock people say the as-yet-unnamed legislators plan to present their proposal at a mid-afternoon news conference today (Thursday). The plan: the president’s plan. The bi-polar, I mean partisan, I mean bi-partisan group will attempt to “divert” money from the already approved $25b Department of Energy Loans– to tide Detroit over until the incoming prez can do his part to subsidize the failing automakers with taxpayer funds. But folks, as this Bailout Watch originally postulated, this is NOT a done deal. Far, far, from it. And I’ll tell you why…

The New York Times reports that Representative Henry A. Waxman has just waxed Representative John D. Dingell of Michigan. The California Democrat will replace Dingell as the chairman of the influential Committee on Energy and Commerce. That’s the committee that cranked-out the original $25b Department of Energy loans upon which the compromise crew have their beady eyes affixed. Waxman is a tree hugger’s tree hugger. As we saw during the Senate hearing on the previous bailout– or is that the ante-penultimate bailout?– the Democrats are FULLY committed to forcing Detroit to increase vehicular efficiency.

They didn’t like the previous compromise on Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE standards). They ain’t gonna like this usurpation one bit. It could very well be payback time for Detroit’s anti-CAFE lobbying. Curiouser and curiouser.