While Democrats endorsed the idea of action and set hearings for next week on the idea to use money from the Wall Street bailout plan approved in October, some Republicans were raising red flags.

"Why are you going to take my tax dollars and give it to a company that pays their employees $75 an hour?" asked Rep. Spencer Bachus of Alabama at a House hearing.

"I think people that are going to be more hostile is the saw mill worker in my district who is only making $15 an hour," Bachus added.

Over at the White House, pesky reporters were trying to zero in on what the Bush White House will or won't do when it comes to possibly having a company like General Motors go into bankruptcy.

White House Press Secretary Dana Perino was trying to answer, but trying not to say too much to questions like, "Will you allow one of the automakers to fail, or will you step in?"

"Hopefully the companies will be able to figure out a way to survive and it won't ever come to that. But it's just too early to say, and I shouldn't speculate on it," Perino said at a briefing.

The Treasury Secretary wasn't much more forthcoming at his own briefing, where his reaction to the idea of using bailout money for US automakers was much like the reaction of a kid who just bit into some food they don't really want to eat.

Paulson told a news conference that "any solution has to be one leading to long term viability."

In other words, he doesn't want to sink money into a company that doesn't have a business model which returns a profit.

Talk radio meanwhile focused on the fact that the General Motors health plan is world's leading buyer of Viagra, at a cool $17 million per year.

Yep, you read that right.

That's one of those statistics that can be devastating in a debate like this. Overall, GM spends over $5 billion on health care each year.

Note to the United Auto Workers union: If you think you're going to get a cash infusion easily from the Congress - even with larger Democratic majorities in January - you might want to take a deep breath first.

Ironically, it's the Republicans that are probably more ready to abandon GM, Ford and Chrysler, after years of protecting them from higher gas mileage standards, tougher safety standards and more.

Now it's the Democrats who might get to preside over the breaking of the UAW union contracts, because if you are going to save GM - or watch it go through bankruptcy - then there will have to be some major changes in pay and benefits.

One other note - if GM goes bankrupt - just think of the pension costs that will likely be dumped on the federal government.

Just another thought.

Your taxpayer money at work.