States Give Yea to $25B in Big Three Loans

Continuing the push for low-interest loans to Detroit's automakers, 10 governors this week joined the fray in requesting $25 billion in low-interest loans for GM, Ford, and Chrysler. As reported by Detroit Free Press, the governors of Michigan, Illinois, New Jersey, Tennessee, Ohio, Wisconsin, South Dakota, Delaware, Kansas, and North Carolina asked for the support in a letter to Congress. They also requested $250 million for research on advanced battery technology.

Job creation, greenhouse gas reduction, and greater energy independence were the main reasons listed for automaker assistance. Further, the letter stated that it is "imperative that the federal government make these critical investments."

As of yet, no orchestrated voice against the loans has emerged. But critics see government assistance as tantamount to a bailout, and The Club for Growth, a group critical of McCain's tax policy, called the pending loans "a politically motivated transfer of wealth" from taxpayers to a special interest.

The White House has not commented yet on the proposed loans, and Congress is not expected to take the issue up until sometime next week.

In a nod to Jalopnik, could this be the Second Coming of The Malaise Era? Financial malaise, anyway. At least electric vehicles have lots of torque at zero rpm, unlike, say, the beloved Chevrolet Chevette/Pontiac T1000 twins wheezing around when Jimmy Carter was admonishing the country to just turn off the heat and just wear a sweater.--Colin Mathews