Don't bail out the auto companies

The word is that when Barack Obama visited the White House for orientation today (well, yesterday by now I guess, and did they have to wear identical suits and dorky-looking blue ties?) he urged the Bushlet to do something to help the Detroit U.S. automakers. This was hardly a new request in that they've already gotten $25 billion in low-cost loans, ostensibly to develop more fuel-efficient and alt-fuel cars, and visited Congress last Thursday to ask for $25 billion more. They shouldn't get a penny of the taxpayers' money, as this Register editorial argues. They have similar problems to as other manufacturers due to the current financial crisis (should every company in the country get a bailout?) but their most serious problems they brought on themselves by assuming the SUV craze would last forever and being almost immune to innovation. There's been more than enough of rewarding failure and punishing success in this country.