Latest on automakers bailout

The Center for Fiscal Accountability has a letter opposing a bailout of automakers, joining NTU, which sent out their own letter.

Alan Reynolds poses the question of what is an "American" car (as it raises the question why the US should bail out the "big 3", or even why the US should bail out the big 3):

The not-so-big three are certainly are no less global than, say, Honda. General Motors gets 44% of its revenue from other countries and Ford gets 53%, according to Forbes (April 21). A German company, Daimler-Benz, still owns a fifth of Chrysler, and a group of affluent private investors owns the rest.

An “American” brand tells you little about where all the parts in a car are made. I was once at a dinner with Lee Iaccoca where I teased him about my Dodge Stealth, made in Japan by Mitsubishi. Similarly, today’s Chevy Aveo is imported from Daewoo in South Korea. Yet Hyundai has a plant in Alabama.

Cars.com found only four cars and six light trucks with a domestic content (meaning US or Canadian) above 75%. That list includes the Toyota Tundra and Sienna and the Honda Odyssey. Other Hondas have a 60-70% domestic content, barely missing the cut.

This question should merit serious weight, because as the "Detroit" automakers are busy lobbying in DC, Honda is opening a new plant in Indiana