Gimme

Your tax dollars at work.

Bloomberg reports that GM, Ford, Chrysler and a group of auto parts makers are hitting up the feds for $50B. Yes, that’s fifty billion dollars in (to quote Bloomberg),

government-backed loans, double their initial request, to develop and build more fuel-efficient vehicles.

So yes, our own auto industry squandered the money they made all those years making trucks and SUVs and need money from us, each of us, to make something different.

And as I’ve said here before, I’m not against the government funding some research and development. I think it’s a good idea in a lot specific areas. But a loan to junk bond GM? Maybe not such a great idea. And, I would hasten to add, these are many of the same people who are constantly crying “free market!” but wanting someone else to bail them out when they, as they are in this case, grossly negligent handling their own affairs.

It’s not a simple question and I won’t pretend to have the answers.

Read through the Bloomberg piece and you tell what we should do.