President Bush, fearing that economists such as Moody's Economy.com's Chief Economist, Mark Zandi, is right that possibly 2.5 million American jobs would be lost if the Big Three filed for bankruptcy, pulled a 2 outs in the bottom of the ninth move as with just one month left in his presidency. He approved spending $17.4 of American taxpayers money to save his own legacy from being documented as the presidency that killed the U.S. auto industry.

President Bush stepped to the podium just after 9 AM on Friday, December 19, to announce his bailout plan.

President Bush started out by saying, "Good morning. For years, America's automakers have faced serious challenges -- burdensome costs, a shrinking share of the market, and declining profits. In recent months, the global financial crisis has made these challenges even more severe." He continued, "the only way they can buy time to restructure is with help from the federal government."

Let's look at the start of his remarks. He said that "for years" they "faced serous challenges" but closed noting that they need to "buy time to restructure." If they've had trouble coming for years and everybody knew about it then why wait until now to fix it. However, they've been doing things over the years to fix the problems and look where they now stand. What makes anybody think that the time they are buying is going to do anything. Then, there's the final statement that the only way to get that time is to buy it from "the federal government." However, they may be buying it from the federal government, but it's the American taxpayer that is paying for it.

Bush continued, "This is a difficult situation that involves fundamental questions about the proper role of government. On the one hand, government has a responsibility not to undermine the private enterprise system. On the other hand, government has a responsibility to safeguard the broader health and stability of our economy."

Here Bush is saying that it isn't his place to do anything, but it is his place to do something. In the long run, there is no gray area here like Bush is referring to with that statement.

He continued to explain that gray area, "Addressing the challenges in the auto industry requires us to balance these two responsibilities. If we were to allow the free market to take its course now, it would almost certainly lead to disorderly bankruptcy and liquidation for the automakers. Under ordinary economic circumstances, I would say this is the price that failed companies must pay -- and I would not favor intervening to prevent the automakers from going out of business. But these are not ordinary circumstances. In the midst of a financial crisis and a recession, allowing the U.S. auto industry to collapse is not a responsible course of action."

Let's look at this explanation of the gray area and simply address it. First of all, bankruptcy doesn't have to be disorderly, but that's not the point here. He said, "Under ordinary economic circumstances, I would say this is the price that failed companies must pay... . But these are not ordinary circumstances." The fact is that if this was an ordinary economic circumstance, there would be vehicle sales and they wouldn't be going out of business. So, the fact that these are not ordinary circumstances mean that Presidential restraint must be exercised in order to not overstep the proper role of government.

Setting the precedent of using the poor economy to justify "undermining the private enterprise system" when without the poor economy there wouldn't be a reason to undermine the private enterprise system simply means that President Bush has undermined the private enterprise system and is not doing the proper role of government.

Bush also said, "American consumers understand why: If you hear that a car company is suddenly going into bankruptcy, you worry that parts and servicing will not be available, and you question the value of your warranty. And with consumers hesitant to buy new cars from struggling automakers, it would be more difficult for auto companies to recover."

Mr. President, I think just talking about bankruptcy has already put that worry into the American consumers, hence, they aren't buying cars and the Big Three are headed to bankruptcy. Plus, Bush also said, "In particular, automakers must meet conditions that experts agree are necessary for long-term viability...These conditions send a clear message to everyone involved in the future of American automakers: The time to make the hard decisions to become viable is now -- or the only option will be bankruptcy."

By saying they have until the end of March to make the decisions to become viable or bankruptcy it will be won't restore the American consumers confidence either. It just delays the problem until March 31. The only thing it does is give the employees three months to find jobs. I hope they take advantage of this as even if the Big Three come up with a plan and the United Auto Workers Union approves there will be significant job losses by the companies.

All that said, there's more. This Presidential Bailout Plan is not set in stone. Bush only has one month left before he moves out of the White House and Obama moves in and word is that he can cancel, change or extend this plan. Any changes or extensions to this plan by Obama will have to wait until he gets into office.

However, the plan as it is gives the Big Three 3 months to come up with viability plans to become profitable companies. Remember, Bush said, "the only way they can buy time to restructure is with help from the federal government." Haven't they been asking for help for at least 2 months now? Shouldn't they have been restructuring all this time and avoiding getting into deeper problems instead of in Washington begging for American taxpayer handouts?

All this shows is that President Bush did this for all the wrong selfish reasons. He is protecting his own legacy by doing something to passing the problem to the next administration. The problem is that Bush did this to protect himself, but I guarantee that next year when they file for bankruptcy that the media will blame the Bush recession and the fact that he failed to act sooner to save the Big Three when they asked for help.

Bush started his presidency with the "new tone" where he was going to stay above the critizism and not respond to it. It didn't make them not be critical of his actions and in doing so he allowed the Democrats to lead the way with their Kennedy education bill to and then follow that with many more liberal plans during the past 8 years. Now, pressure of what will be written about his presidency is guiding him to do another liberal plan that undermines the American enterprise system and in an attempt to save his own legacy that won't even work.