Automaker aid bill doesn’t have needed votes

Ford’s chief executive, Alan Mulally, and GM’s chief executive, Rick Wagoner, said they would work for $1 a year if each company accepted government loans. The carmakers also have offered to cancel bonuses and merit raises. Chrysler said its chief executive has cut his annual pay to $1.

All three plans envision the government getting a stake in the companies that would allow taxpayers to share in future gains if they recover.

The Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee was to hear testimony Thursday from the executives, the UAW’s president, Ron Gettelfinger, and the head of the Government Accountability Office on the companies’ plans. The House Financial Services Committee planned similar session Friday.

Officials at the White House and the Treasury and Commerce departments were scouring the plans. White House press secretary Dana Perino said it was “too early to say” whether the companies have outlined a path toward viability that justifies new federal assistance.

President-elect Barack Obama said it appeared that Big Three chiefs were returning to Washington with a “more serious set of plans.”

The bailout faces a skeptical public. Sixty-one percent oppose providing the auto companies with billions in federal assistance, according to a CNN-Opinion Research Corp. poll released Wednesday. Fifty-three percent said it would not help the economy.

Few saw any quick impact if the U.S. auto industry were to go bankrupt — only one in three said it would affect them immediately or in a year. Most of the rest said they thought it would affect them eventually, though nearly one-quarter said they would never feel its impact.

Earlier Wednesday, GM's Henderson said that bankruptcy isn’t a viable option because it would further erode consumer confidence in the automaker and “we want them to be confident in their ability to buy our cars and trucks.”

Henderson appeared on the network morning news as leaders of the UAW was immersed in intense discussions on possible givebacks for the companies at an emergency meeting in Detroit.

Henderson said that GM is ready to undertake a host of steps needed to resize. But he also said on NBC television that "to win, you've got to win with product and technology. ... And we do not want to give consumers a reason not to buy our cars and trucks."

Chrysler LLC and Ford Motor Co. — as well as GM — have ditched their corporate jets for hybrid cars and replaced vague pleas for federal help with detailed requests for as much as $34 billion in their second crack at persuading Congress to throw them a lifeline.

Henderson acknowledged Wednesday that the initial appearance by the heads of the car makers was a public relations failure.  

"Yeah, it certainly was not our finest hour," he told NBC. "We were not as clear about what we wanted to do." He also conceded that the decision by the executives to travel to Washington by private jet "was a problem" for lawmakers.

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