Bankruptcy for Big Three?

As the car companies prepared to close more plants and five hundred thousand new Americans filed for unemployment, the Bush administration discussed the possibility of an "orderly bankruptcy" for the auto industry, a plan the Big Three say would lead to disaster. "There's an orderly way to do bankruptcies that provides for more of a soft landing. I think that's what we would be talking about," said White House press secretary Dana Perino. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi said President Bush now has the authority to include the auto industry in the bailout and "with 2 million American jobs riding on the outcome, the administration should provide this assistance with tough accountability standards and an insistence on shared sacrifice." One problem is the number of parties involved in negotiations, from executives to unions to equity holders. Bush is also keen to protect the incoming president. "I thought about what it would be like for me to become president during this period. I believe that good policy is not to dump him a major catastrophe on his first day in office," Bush said.