Congressional leaders warn automakers on bailout

WASHINGTON - Leading Democrats expect U.S. automakers will show Congress next month they are worth rescuing and are capable of returning to global preeminence. Skeptical Republicans said yesterday that Detroit's Big Three needed to convince taxpayers that they deserve an emergency $25 billion lifeline.

With the survival of a major manufacturer at stake, a top adviser to President-elect Barack Obama warned the companies that there is little the government can do without a viable plan to restructure.

Executives from Detroit's Big Three returned home after a pair of disastrous hearings last week, under orders from Democratic leaders to provide a detailed accounting by Dec. 2 of their financial condition and short-term cash needs, as well as a plan for viability over the long term.

Hearings are expected the week of Dec. 1. Lawmakers could consider legislation the following week if they are satisfied by the companies' responses.

"My expectation is that we are going to see something, that the auto companies are going to respond in a way that I think will give confidence to the Congress and to the American public that we need to assist these companies," said the House's second-ranking Democrat, Rep. Steny Hoyer of Maryland.

Added House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D., Calif): "We want to be their partners to go forward . . . and if we're going forward, to be preeminent in the world, and we think that that opportunity is there."

Sen. Charles Schumer (D., N.Y.) said Congress could not provide money without a plan. "There can be. There will be. And then Congress will step up to the plate."

But the House Republican leader, Rep. John Boehner of Ohio, was less certain the automakers would change enough minds by next month.

"I'm not sure that they will have a plan by early December, a real plan. And on behalf of the American taxpayers, they're not interested in investing money that - it's going to be really thrown away," Boehner said.

Schumer was on ABC's

This Week

, while Hoyer and Boehner appeared on

Fox News Sunday

. Pelosi was interviewed on

Face the Nation

on CBS.