Roving Online: Do YOU think the government should bail out the auto industry?

American auto makers are petitioning Congress for $15 billion in bailout cash, just months after the banking industry netted $700 billion. We want to hear your thoughts about these deals — seems only fair, since you’re partially underwriting them. (Thanks for the image, Eye Clinic of Austin!)

In the interest of exploring the studio space of this blog, we’re going to be trying some new things from time to time — maybe some recurring features, definitely some one-off talkback posts, “news you can use” kind of stuff, coverage of events that break or take place in between our Thursday-to-Thursday print existence, etc.  We want this to be a useful, interesting read, and if you’ve got any ideas for features you’d like to see here, feel free to give us a shout and weigh in.

Just two months after President Bush signed a law authorizing Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to shell out up to $700 billion of taxpayer green to hemorrhaging financial institutions, U.S. automobile manufacturers are looking for a piece of the pie to help them stay afloat in a crippling financial climate. Reuters reports that an agreement was struck Tuesday night on the framework of a $15 billion plan to bail out and restructure the so-called “Big Three” car companies (General Motors, Ford and Chrysler), and that the U.S. House of Representatives could vote on the plan as early as today.

Seems as good a time as any to speak your piece on this.

This week’s asked a half-dozen Banner readers whether or not they thought the U.S. government should bail out flagging auto makers.  They had their chance; now here’s yours.  Sound off in the comments.  We look forward to hearing what you think, and as always, we thank you for reading.

Take care,

Dan Devine
Deputy Editor