First, the statement from John Engler, president and CEO of the National Association of Manufacturers:

I cannot stress enough the importance of the auto industry to our nation’s economy.  As I’ve stated in the past, the automotive sector is the country’s largest manufacturing industry, and it accounts for approximately 20 percent of our manufacturing GDP. What’s more, the overall industry accounts for more than a million jobs, including many among industry suppliers.  The automotive sector is a highly integrated industry and a failure of one automaker could have a crippling impact on the entire supply chain. As President Bush said, it would worsen a weak job market and exacerbate the economic crisis.

We applaud President Bush’s carefully-reasoned decision today to use funding from the Troubled Asset Recovery Program (TARP) to stabilize the auto industry.  This action will give the automakers time to develop plans for restructuring their businesses to ensure they are more competitive in the future.  Further, today’s action will shield the American people from another harsh economic blow at a time when the economy is especially vulnerable.  The President’s decision is a critical component in the overall effort to restore confidence to consumers and investors, and stabilize the economy.

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