Automakers plead with Congress; votes lacking
In this Nov. 19, 2008 file photo, auto industry executives, from left, General Motors Chief Executive Officer Richard Wagoner; Chrysler Chief Executive Officer Robert Nardelli; and Ford Chief Executive Officer Alan Mulally, testify on Capitol Hill in Washington before a House Financial Services Committee hearing on the automotive industry bailout. Detroit's automakers, making a second bid for $25 billion in funding, are presenting Congress with plans Tuesday, Dec. 2 to restructure their ailing companies and provide assurances that the funding will help them survive and thrive.
WASHINGTON (AP) _ Imperiled automakers and their union worked feverishly Wednesday to sell a skeptical Congress on a $34 billion aid plan, promising labor concessions and restructuring. The Senate's Democratic leader said there still weren't enough votes to tap the $700 billion federal bailout fund to prop up the foundering Big Three.
One day before the chiefs of the auto companies return to Capitol Hill to make their urgent cases for loans, Sen. Harry Reid, D-Nev., said the money was unlikely to come from the Wall Street rescue fund.
"I just don't think we have the votes to do that now," Reid told The Associated Press in an interview.
The White House called the timing of his comments "interesting" coming on the eve of high-stakes congressional hearings Democrats demanded.
"It's not hospitable," said Dana Perino, the White House press secretary.
Indeed, the reception the Big Three were getting from Congress was
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