It’s becoming increasingly apparent that the Big Three bailout will have trouble making it through the Senate:
A $14 billion bill to bail out and restructure the U.S. auto industry cleared initial procedural hurdles in the House today but ran into stiff Republican opposition in the Senate, casting doubt on a plan the White House called “a good conceptual agreement” with congressional Democrats.
(…)
President Bush dispatched White House Chief of Staff Joshua B. Bolten to Capitol Hill to persuade Republican lawmakers to fall in line behind the deal, which was brokered between the White House officials and congressional Democrats. But Bolten emerged from a two-hour luncheon meeting today “with less support than when he came in,” said Sen. Bob Corker (R-Tenn.).
“I don’t think the votes are there on our side of the aisle,” conceded Sen. George Voinovich (R-Ohio), a major defender of the domestic automakers who has been working for weeks to broker a plan to help them survive the deepening recession. “Some effort needs to be made to respond the concerns of my colleagues,” he said.
A good sign, but I’m not holding out much hope here. The longer this process drags on, the more time that the White House and GOP leaders will have to do the arm-twisting and deal making they need to do to get enough votes to pass this bill.
[...] the Beltway holds out a little hope that the bailout will not succeed (see here). He also notes the bailout of homeowners seems to flopping (see here), and that a Car Czar could [...]