Pelosi: Congress Will Help Automakers

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said at a news conference Friday that Congress will do something for U.S. automakers, regardless of the quality of the bailout plan they put forth.

“We can’t do nothing, because that — I don’t know if that works,” she said. “But doing nothing is, I don’t think, an option. But what we do will be determined by what they do.”
Pelosi’s comments came in response to a reporter who asked what effect the the automakers’ bailout plan would have on a congressional action. Lawmakers this week delayed voting on $25 billion in loans to the General Motors, Chrysler and Ford and instead asked them to come up with a specific plan on how they will use the money.

“Until they show us the plan, we cannot show them the money,” Pelosi said on Thursday.

See the full exchange at Pelosi’s news conference below.

QUESTION: (inaudible) you would evaluate the viability plan that the industry sends, and decide if warranted calling Congress back into session. Does that mean that the — the quality of their plan will determine whether or not your reconvene, or will you come back and legislate, in your own way, even they give you…

PELOSI: That may be the case. It’s probably closer to the latter, because we can’t do nothing. Nothing is not — we can’t do nothing, because that — I don’t know if that works. But doing nothing is, I don’t think, an option. But what we do will be determined by what they do. And again, it’s only a couple of weeks from then, from ninth or tenth of December until when Congress comes into session in January.

It would be my hope that — looking at what they present to us — and I’m very optimistic and hopeful that they have gotten the message that they just can’t come as they give us this and maybe that — No, wait a minute, we changed our mind, we want that.

What are they going to do with the money? And how is — how do we tell the American taxpayer it was worthwhile to put this in, not as a life support for a few more months, and then they’re back again, but as an investment in their viability.