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The Senate is debating it. President-Elect Barack Obama and Senator John McCain are discussing it. The White House is refining its statements on it. The number one issue in America today is the possibility of using taxpayer money to keep Detroit’s Big Three automakers afloat in an economic downturn when auto sales can’t support them.

The Senate will begin debate on the matter today. The San Francisco Chronicle explains, “Democrats are pushing a measure that could force the Bush administration to tap into the $700 billion Congress approved to rescue Wall Street and offer automakers a loan in return for an equity stake. President-elect Barack Obama is putting his weight behind the effort, saying that auto giants like General Motors are too crucial to the U.S. economy to be allowed to fail.” The bill will likely be introduced this morning as an amendment to a routine bill that extends a federal unemployment benefits program.

The White House is against the bailout in this particular form. The AP reports, “With Congress returning Monday to deal with an auto industry in dire financial straits, the Bush White House stressed that it supports help, but not at the expense of the $700 billion Wall Street rescue program.” A statement released this morning by White House Press Secretary Dana Perino said that the current administration “does not want U.S. automakers to fail,” but the White House “steadfastly opposes drawing funds from the bailout plan to help Detroit.” Instead, “She said the $25 billion that Democrats favor taking from the rescue plan should come, instead, from a Department of Energy program previously approved to develop fuel-efficient vehicles.”

Obama and McCain, until recently rivals for the Presidency, will meet face-to-face today for the first time since the recent Presidential election. NBC News reports, “The meeting will take place in Chicago,” and it is believed that Obama “may look to McCain as an ally…first on the economy.” The automaker bailout proposal is expected to be a major topic of their discussions.

The bailout plan may need the support of a few Republicans in the Senate. USA Today reports, “Top Republicans heaped scorn Sunday on a plan by Democrats to spend $25 billion rescuing American automakers, raising doubts about whether the auto bailout can pass the lame-duck Congress that begins today.” Alabama Senator Richard Shelby, the top Republican on the banking committee that will first hear the proposal, told NBC’s Meet the Press that the plan was “a road to nowhere.”

Shelby is one of several senators whose states depend heavily on foreign automakers — who would not be eligible for assistance under the proposal — for employment. Honda, Toyota and Mercedes-Benz all operate factories in Alabama.

The bailout proposal may pit U.S. automakers against their foreign rivals even in U.S. government policymaking. Bloomberg notes, “Senators from southern states with factories owned by Asian and European car manufacturers oppose a bailout of U.S. automakers, saying the industry can thrive without General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC.” Beyond Alabama, South Carolina depends on Munich-based BMW for many jobs, while West Virginia and Kentucky boast Toyota plants.

The powerful United Auto Workers union supports the bailout proposal, but not some of the conditions that may be attached to it. The New York Times reports that UAW President Ron Gettelfinger “rejects talk that the U.A.W. will need to make major concessions for Detroit to win aid. The union, he said, has already agreed to job reductions of more than 100,000 workers since 2006, taking over its retiree health care through company-funded trusts, and opening the door to lower wages for new workers at G.M., Ford and Chrysler.” Even many advocates of the bill say that the industry cannot survive without union concessions on measures like “union rules that provide workers with 95 percent of their wages while on layoff and other job-security provisions.”

If the bailout provision should fail, the Los Angeles Times reports, the ripple effect could go “far beyond Detroit.” The Times explains, “When it comes to the U.S. automakers and their financial troubles, politicians and the public tend to think about the 240,000 jobs that could be lost at the Big Three’s assembly lines in Michigan and nearby Rust Belt states. Yet suppliers provide about 70 percent of the content in most automobiles, from the seats to specialized bolts on the suspension — everything except the sheet metal and the motor assembly. So when Ford, Chrysler or General Motors Corp. sneeze, 600,000 workers in places as widely scattered as Peachtree City, Ga., and Pittsburg, Kan., are likely to catch cold.” The failure of GM could even create problems for more competitive automakers, as “Most large suppliers sell parts to all three American automakers, plus European and Asian companies such as Toyota Motor Corp. that have plants in the U.S. So the failure of certain suppliers could cut off production beyond the Big Three.”

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