Gimme My Bailout -- The Big 3

From MarketWatch.com:

The chief executives of the Big Three U.S. automakers faced some skeptical lawmakers as they returned to Capitol Hill for a second day of furious lobbying for aid for their battered industry Wednesday.

Testifying before the House Financial Services Committee, the CEOs of General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC each fielded questions from members who said the companies must become more competitive and worried about how $25 billion in government loans would be used.

"If we continue down the path of taking money from more efficient and competitive companies and giving them to companies which are less efficient and in trouble because of bad management and bad decisions, our overall productivity as a country will continue to suffer," said Rep. Spencer Bachus, the top Republican on the financial-services panel.

Democrats in the House and the Senate are scrambling to push through a rescue package for the ailing industry. Bills in both chambers of Congress would extend $25 billion in the form of bridge loans, drawn from the recently enacted $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program for the financial markets. A vote in the Senate may come as early as Wednesday.