Wrong way to ask for a handout

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WASHINGTON -- The homeless beggar near the office was smoking a cigarette and had a pack in this shirt pocket as he offered his cup for a handout.I figured, if he's got money for cigarettes, his financial need must not be urgent.The chief executives of the Big Three automakers flew in from Detroit on their corporate jets to beg for a $25 billion bailout.Their plan stalled when members of Congress figured the automakers' need must not be urgent. Not if they couldn't fly commercial. Nobody's asking them to fly coach, mind you.The scale and circumstances are totally different but the rule for begging is the same. If you want people to give you money, make them think you'll use it wisely.So far, the Big Three have not persuaded Congress that they'll use another $25 billion wisely."I think it will be throwing good money after bad," Sen. Richard Shelby, R-Ala., said on MSNBC Thursday. "They've already burned through hundreds of billions of dollars and they haven't turned these companies around."The nightmare is 3 million American jobs lost next year if the Big Three go belly up. That could lead to another Great Depression. Nobody in the nation's capital wants that.So, even though Congress balked this week, help for the auto industry is far from dead.As Shelby observed, "Nothing's ever dead in Washington, D.C. If it's an idea ..... it will come back, and this is an idea to bail out the auto companies."President-elect Barack Obama said on CBS' "60 Minutes" that a complete collapse of the auto industry would be a "disaster." Government assistance is necessary, but, he said, it needs conditions. No blank checks.And Obama asked, "What does a sustainable U.S. auto industry look like?"We may already know. Matthew Slaughter, associate dean at Dartmouth College's Tuck School of Business, writing in The Wall Street Journal, answered Obama's question:"Well, it looks a lot like the automotive industry run by 'foreign' car companies that insource jobs into the U.S." He noted that in 2006, multinational auto or auto-parts companies with headquarters outside the United States had 402,800 American workers. And the employees' average annual compensation was $63,538.This is the upside of free trade and a global economy -- and it has benefited the South even as the region has been devastated by job losses to Mexico and overseas in the textile and furniture industries.Foreign automakers -- drawn by a lower-cost workforce, employer-friendly laws and tax incentives - are manufacturing vehicles in Alabama, South Carolina, Tennessee and other Southern states.While they are also suffering in the economic slump, these companies are likely to survive, analysts say. When the economy finally turns around, they'll be able to meet demand and grow.But Slaughter, who opposes the auto bailout, suggested that fewer companies will be willing to "insource" if the federal government bails out their domestic competitors. A bailout could cost American jobs here and trade overseas as other countries added even more protectionist measures, he said.Members of Congress are in a tough spot. They don't like helping American companies send jobs overseas, even if they also save jobs here.Rep. Walter Jones, R-N.C., told the auto execs at the House financial services committee hearing Wednesday he was speaking for the frustrated people of his district. He wanted some assurance that the companies would keep jobs here."When you're getting this money from the American taxpayer and you keep having these cars made, assembled overseas in different countries, what is the purpose of this loan? Is it to keep you viable so that you can continue to move jobs overseas?" Jones asked.The answer, basically, was yes.Richard Wagoner Jr. of General Motors said, "I'll tell you, from GM's side, we certainly do want to grow in China and Brazil and the places that are growing around the world. That's good for our business here."That's good business for the automakers, but it doesn't make Congress want to dig deep in taxpayers' pockets for a handout or a bailout.(Marsha Mercer is Washington bureau chief of Media General News Service. www.mgwashington.com E-mail mmercer(at)mediageneral.com)(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)