Hearings for Big Three continue

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Scott Jagow: Today is day two of the carmaker bailout hearings on Capitol Hill. Alisa Roth tells us what we’ve heard so far, and what we can expect.

Alisa Roth: All three CEOs will show up in the House of Representatives today. And they’ll probably give spiels much like those they gave the Senate Banking Committee yesterday: They’ll work for better fuel efficiency and lower production costs, and they’d be happy to be supervised by a federal oversight board.

Robert Schulz follows the auto industry for Standard and Poor’s. He expects the government will eventually come through with some money for Detroit.

Robert Schulz: At the same time that could probably only just buy them time, because the big challenge being the economy and their turnaround plans, you know, will continue on in ’09 and 2010.

No matter what they get from the government, the companies will still be in trouble if people don’t start buying their cars again.

Meanwhile, the amount Detroit wants keeps getting bigger — two weeks ago, they said
$25 billion would cover it. Now, it’s more like $34 [billion].

Chris Dodd, the senator from Connecticut, said yesterday the government has to do something. But not everybody’s convinced: Richard Shelby, from Alabama, says he will not support a bailout.

In New York, I’m Alisa Roth for Marketplace.