Hill leader says jobs report argues for car rescue

WASHINGTON �?A key House committee chairman said Friday that new bleak unemployment figures make helping the beleaguered domestic auto industry even more urgent and cautioned colleagues that doing nothing "would be a disaster."

Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., said "the country is held hostage" by the debate raging over how to help Detroit's Big Three automakers �?and the prospect of congressional inaction.

Frank spoke during the second day of testimony from the automakers seeking a government bailout of up to $34 billion �?and shortly after the government reported the biggest monthly job loss in 34 years.

Skeptical lawmakers are weighing whether to dole out as much as $34 billion in aid to the automakers as the once-mighty companies make their second round of pleas for government help to keep them from collapsing by year's end and potentially deepening the nation's already painful recession.

"For us to do nothing, to allow bankruptcies and failures in one or three of these companies in the midst of the worst credit crisis and the worst unemployment situation that we've had in 70 years would be a disaster," Frank said ahead of testimony to his House Financial Services Committee from the CEOs of General Motors Corp., Ford and Chrysler LLC.

Congress is considering a range of options, including a government-run oversight board. But no plan seems to be gaining much traction.

It is the second day of testimony for the auto chiefs, who tried to sell the Senate Banking Committee on Thursday on a new plan that would total $34 billion, up from the $25 billion they requested just two weeks ago.

"I don't want to send you home again because it's going to get more expensive," joked Democratic Rep. Gary Ackerman of New York.

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