General Motors and Chrysler have finally got their bailout, but not from Congress but from the Bush White House.

All the efforts of Republicans to impose qualifications for the bailout were in vain, as their president signed off on over $17 B for the “Big Two” [Ford is in better shape] without any binding qualifiers.

There will be no “car czar” to oversee expenses and GM and Chrysler will not have to make any specific cuts. The White House established guide lines, but, alas, they are just that. Obama can waive anything he wants and the automakers get to reattain their freebie from the American taxpayers [as do the destructive unions].

President Bush, unprincipled as he is, says he would like to allow the free market to work, but he just can’t because the car makers are a special case. Just like Bush wanted to allow the market to work when it came to steel, but steel is just special. And farmers are just special and Bear Sterns is just special, and on and on and on.

Is this what America has come to? There is no constitutional mandate for handing over an individuals earned income to support a firm that cannot support itself. What will Congress say to GM and Chrysler when the come back and state “please, ‘Sir, I want some more”?

Without a managed bankruptcy, the automakers and the unions will be on Capital Hill asking for billions more in no time.