President Elect Obama, you're about to get your first big economic test:

Cave to the anguished cries of the crippled US car industry and waste tens of billions of taxpayer dollars postponing the inevitable.

OR

Just let the crippled companies finally go bankrupt.

Ford, GM, and Chrysler are done for regardless, Obama. Bailing them out yet again won't fix them. It will just prolong the agony.

The companies' problems result from:

Their inability to build cars (cars, not trucks) Americans love

Their inability to restructure their way out of their pension and union obligations

Their inability to compete on their own merits.

Throwing another $25 billion of taxpayer money down the rat hole won't do anything other than postpone the crisis. Just let the companies go bankrupt, Obama. That's what bankruptcy is for. Let the shareholders and debt holders take the hit. Not the American taxpayers.

Ford, GM, and Chrysler will continue to make cars. They will continue to employ Americans. (When airlines go bankrupt, they keep flying). Most importantly, they will finally be able to do the major restructuring that they have been postponing for decades.

Help retrain the workers, obviously. Help bail out some of the pensions. But don't blow your first tough test on the economy and bail out an industry that should have died 20 years ago.

See Also: GM-Chrysler Bailout: STOP THE MADNESS