Senator McCain: Chrysler Won't Make It!

Senator John McCain, the 2008 Republican presidential candidate, continues to talk about the US auto sector in a pessimistic manner and thinks that Chrysler, who received around $15 billion in state aid, will still bite the dust. McCain was against state funds from the very beginning and insisted that both GM and Chrysler should try to survive with loans. This way, they could become more competitive companies without debts of billions of dollars to the US government.

"No, I don't think we ever should have bailed out Chrysler and General Motors," McCain was quoted as saying by The Detroit News. "We should have let them go into bankruptcy, emerge and become viable corporations again."

Both General Motors and Chrysler received billions of dollars in state funds, stepping under Chapter 11 protection during summer and then emerging with less debts. Still, both companies are currently undergoing a huge restructuring process that includes killing brands, laying off people and shutting down factories across the United States.

"It was all about the unions. The unions didn't want to have their very generous contracts renegotiated so we put $80 billion into both General Motors and Chrysler, and anybody believes that Chrysler is going to survive, I'd like to meet them," McCain said in a statement trying to explain the reason for the state funds.

"We see the automotive industry, and my heart goes out to the citizens of Detroit, really in the tank, and yet we have manufacturing plants all over the South, which are not bound by some of the labor rules and contracts that make them non-competitive."