More FAILout Mayhem: Car Loan Edition

So, Congress refused to pass that automaker bailout. But since when has Congress stopped Bush from doing stuff? Today, he just dipped into TARP (that $700 billion no-oversight slush fund set up to give money to whoever on Wall Street tons of money for whatever) and gave automakers a $17.4 billion dollar loan. And before you say "at least it saves jobs", note that the terms of the bailout are horrible for autoworkers. And the likely result? At best, the auto industry retools and is able to invest a few more years of effort toward trying to keep our "happy motoring" society running at any cost (i.e. alternative fuels, more efficient engine design, electric cars, hybrids; not enough even if people were going to buy new cars en masse in this economy). At worst, it's more of the same, Americans (the ones who can afford cars, anyways) still buy preferable foreign models, and the industry goes under again. In that scenario, it's hard to tell what would be next (protective tariffs? just give up?), but it's hard to imagine a good outcome.

In conclusion (not sure where this is from originally, but it sums up things well):