The governor of Michigan, Jennifer Granholm, is heading back to D.C. this week to lobby the government for more funds to help the ailing auto industry. She’s actually expected to meet later today with government officials detailing what she might need. Detroit has already received $17.4 billion in federal aid money, most of which came from the TARP program that President Bush signed into law before he left. But the automakers are now requesting $21.6 billion more, even though they haven’t shown what they’re doing to remedy the situation that put them in this crunch in the first place.

As part of the original funds given to the automakers, they were required to submit a proposal on how best to change the company and make it profitable once more. President Obama has taken it a step further, requiring that an “auto task force” be setup to oversee the restructuring of the companies and make sure that they are holding up their end of the bargain. Unfortunately, however, this plan is starting off slowly, and Detroit is most likely utilizing that lack of focus by the task force to receive more money to continue the disastrous work they’ve started.

But all’s well that ends well, and all we can hope for at this point is that Detroit can actually create a car that the American consumer might want to buy. It’s surprising, really, that the automobile got its major break in the United States, and now the Asian companies are cornering the market and making and producing better vehicles. It’s much like baseball; America may have started it, but Japan and the other asian countries are perfecting it. Let’s get out of this rut and fix it, eh?