Chrysler bankrupt. GM's next. Why did we "bail them out?"

[dazzleman]

The auto industry bailout was done to buy more time.  Nothing more.  Bush simply didn't want the industry to collapse on his watch, so he bought a couple of months and passed the problem on to Obama.
In addition, the thinking at the time was that the collapse of the auto industry was more than the economy could take at that time, so it was worth it to spend money to effectively delay it and manage the collapse in an orderly fashion rather than just let it happen.

Obama sees an opportunity to use the dependency of private companies like GM and Chrysler (as well as states who can't pay their bills) on federal largesse to seize an unprecedented level of control and force through an agenda not in keeping with the constitution.

That will work great until the federal government itself goes bankrupt, which it will one way or another under Obama's policies.