WASHINGTON -- The federal government sent Detroit packing last week, saying the Big Three auto makers had to establish their financial viability before any bailout, but it moved quickly over the weekend to give Citigroup Inc. $20 billion and promised as much as $275 billion more.

On Monday, President-elect Barack Obama offered his own rebuke of the auto makers' stuck-in-the-mud approach to restructuring.

"Taxpayers can't be expected to pony up more money for an auto industry that has been resistant to change," Mr. Obama said at a news conference in Chicago. "And I was surprised that they did not have a better-thought-out proposal when they arrived in Congress....I think that the auto industry needs to present us with some clarity in terms of the dollar figures that they're talking about."

When it comes to getting a federal bailout, Detroit, which is seeking $25 billion, has let its problems grow for so long that fixing them has become a monumental task, as evidenced by the chilly reception the auto executives of General Motors Corp. , Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC got when they came calling last week.

Mr. Obama has sought creative ways of fixing the auto makers' financial problems and helping them change their product lines to address climate change, practically since he arrived in Washington four years ago.