McCain vows to keep auto industry alive

[TMN]

McCain vows to keep auto industry alive

Detroit News

Republican presidential candidate John McCain said Friday he would work to speed along $25 billion in direct government loans for automakers, but didn't say whether he favors additional assistance.

"I would do whatever I think needs to be done to help out the auto industry. We need to keep this industry alive," McCain said this morning on ABC News' Good Morning America.

Asked if he would support a bailout of automakers, McCain emphasized the need to get $25 billion in low-cost retooling loans to automakers and auto suppliers. The Bush administration has been pushing to complete regulations that will allow them to award money from the fund. The Detroit News reported earlier this week that a draft of the regulation is being circulated and it could be released as early as next week. That could allow funds to be awarded by year's end. "We have delayed getting them that money," McCain said.

The loans could provide badly needed cash for automakers that are burning through money in what is on pace to be the worst auto sales year in more than 15 years. Automakers could save more than $100 million in borrowing costs per $1 billion borrowed through the loan program and could get five years deferral of repayment.

McCain's rival, Democratic candidate Barack Obama, said Thursday he would meet "immediately" with the CEOs of Detroit's Big Three and head of the United Auto Workers union if elected president. "The notion that we can't compete in an industry that we created I think is, you know, unacceptable. And not only that, but you've got an entire Midwest --Ohio, Michigan, big chunks of Indiana, parts of my home state of Illinois -- that the entire fabric of those states' economies are built around the auto industry," Obama told NBC News.

Neither candidate has taken a position on whether he would support increased government funds to complete a tie-up of General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC. GM and Cerberus Capital Management LP, which owns 80.1 percent of Chrysler, have been in talks since September.