Just $25 billion more (OK, maybe a bit more) in cheap government loans—that's all the Big Three automakers need to retool and avoid collapse, the CEOs of Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler pitched to Congress on Tuesday. "From the response they got, it will be a tough sell," BusinessWeek reckons. The New York Times concurs, writing that "after four hours of testimony, it appeared they had not persuaded enough lawmakers to move quickly on a bailout." The Democratic leadership, the newspaper adds, has not succeeded in mustering enough support to tap the $700 billion bailout fund to rescue the troubled carmakers. It's just as well, opines the Wall Street Journal, contending that "the money is a tool of Congressional industrial policy to turn GM, Ford and Chrysler into agents of the Sierra Club and other green lobbies." The WSJ's suggestion? For starters, ease "onerous" fleet mileage standards that "force the companies to make cars domestically that are unprofitable." This, the newspaper concludes, would probably save Chrysler from bankruptcy.

Meanwhile, auto bailout fever is spreading abroad. Foreign automakers are watching the proceedings in Washington with great interest, telling lawmakers back home that if Detroit gets a bailout, they'll need one, too. This is precisely the rationale in Beijing, where China’s car industry "is quietly pressing ... for government help as it copes with a jarring slowdown," the NYT writes. European automakers are fishing for state aid too, taking advantage of the EU's dithering on whether such help would constitute a breach of competition rules, according to the WSJ.

Meanwhile, the business prospects for the leading carmakers worsen by the day. Ford's marketing chief yesterday described November auto sales as "just terrible." And, it emerged yesterday, the resale value of American cars—as measured by the Kelley Blue Book people—continues to lag behind European and Asian car models (not a good sign for the Big Three).

If Detroit loses its fight for bailout bucks, it won't be alone. Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson told the House financial services committee on Tuesday that neither Detroit nor homeowners facing foreclosure deserve access to the dwindling $700 billion bailout reserve. "The primary purpose of the bill was to protect our financial system from collapse," Paulson lectured House Democrats urging homeowner relief. "The rescue package was not intended to be an economic stimulus or an economic recovery package." The fault lines are widening, indeed, between Paulson and House Democrats, who accused the Treasury secretary of misleading them on the original intent of the aid and of not knowing what to do next, the Washington Post reports. "There's a lack of confidence, it seems to me, both in this body and in the general population," Rep. Paul E. Kanjorski, D-Pa., lashed out at Paulson during the hearing. "Do we have a plan? Where are we going?" Paulson seemed cool under fire though, repeatedly stating the package is for stabilizing the financial system, not "a panacea for all our economic difficulties."

"You cannot be serious!" To paraphrase, that's New York Attorney General Andrew M. Cuomo's reaction to suggestions that AIG—recent beneficiary of $150 billion in rescue loans—might hand out executive bonuses this year. It "seems hard to believe that A.I.G. could pay significant bonuses or give raises to its executives after the company has quite literally been bailed out by the American taxpayer," Cuomo wrote to CEO Edward M. Libby, the NYT's Dealbook reports. Cuomo also pointed out that Goldman Sachs, UBS, and Barclays have all waived bonuses for this year.

Shares in Hewlett-Packard soared 14 percent yesterday, BusinessWeek reports, as the granddaddy of Silicon Valley beat the street and surprised analysts by reporting an upbeat outlook for 2009. While tech giants such as Cisco, Sun Microsystems, and Intel all languish, HP delivered a fourth quarter profit of $1.03 a share, benefiting from what CEO Mark Hurd described as "its global reach, diverse customer base, broad portfolio, and numerous cost initiatives." Even more surprising news from Silicon Valley comes from the WSJ, which reports Google and Procter & Gamble have started swapping employees in an "odd couple" pact to leverage the next generation of online advertising. P&G needs to learn more about online consumer habits as its market moves increasingly to the Net while Google "craves a bigger slice of P&G's $8.7 billion annual ad pie as its own revenue growth slows."

Lastly, if you get home early for Christmas this year, you may need to thank President Bush. The White House on Tuesday gave the green light for commercial airlines to use military air space across the country during the holiday season to ease midair congestion, the NYT writes. The move may not be necessary. The Air Transport Association is predicting for the upcoming Thanksgiving weekend that the number of air passengers will be down 10 percent from last year.