The White House assailed Congress for putting off a vote on whether to bail out the struggling auto industry, blasting Democrats for their “mindless opposition,” a spokeswoman said Friday.
“It is appalling that Congress decided to leave town without addressing a problem that they themselves said needed to be addressed,” Dana Perino told reporters traveling with President George W. Bush to Lima for a summit of Asia-Pacific leaders.
“There is this mindless opposition to anything that the president or Republicans would support,” Perino said, declining to specify which lawmakers.
“I think it's obvious. I don't have to name them. They know who they are,” she said.
Democrats in Congress Thursday put off a vote on a bailout for crisis-hit “Big Three” automakers until at least December, and ordered industry chiefs to come up with a new restructuring plan.
Perino also criticized Congress for asking automakers to come back next month with proposals on how government aid would help them.
“How in the world are 535 members of Congress going to determine the viability of a company?” Perino asked.
“It's mind-boggling. They can't even get together to pass a Mother's Day resolution.”
Top executives from Chrysler, Ford and General Motors this week begged Congress for the multi-billion-dollar loans and warned that the industry faces a “catastrophic collapse” if the lawmakers didn't fund them.
Democrats said the chief executives of the “Big Three” auto firms, pilloried for flying to Washington to plead for rescue aid on luxury corporate jets, had failed to convince them they could restructure their reeling companies.
However Democratic House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said lawmakers would act as soon as they were satisfied by the industry's proposals, a day after she and Senate Majority leader Harry Reid put off a vote on a bailout.
“We can't do nothing,” Pelosi said at her weekly press conference.
“Doing nothing is, I don't think, an option. But what we do will be determined by what they do.
She also hinted that if the auto makers did not satisfy lawmakers with their new restructuring plans, they might have to wait until president-elect Barack Obama takes office in January.
“Again, it's only a couple of weeks from then, from (the) ninth or tenth of December until when Congress comes into session in January.”
Reid said Thursday it was a “sad reality” that despite a bipartisan deal by senators from states which have millions of jobs depending on the industry, that there was not yet sufficient support for a bailout.
He said the chiefs of Chrysler, Ford and General Motors must come up with a restructuring plan and Congress would consider whether to provide billions of dollars in funding in December.
“We do not have the votes,” Reid said.
“Yes, we are kicking the can down the road, because that will give us the opportunity to do something positive.”
The auto giants say their problems are not of their making, arguing they have been hit by falling demand amid the financial crisis.
But critics say the firms have been left flat-footed because they failed to develop smaller, fuel efficient cars, and for years concentrated on gas-guzzling sports utility vehicles, demand for which was hit by high fuel prices.
