CNN outlines four ways Detroit can be fixed, all at a high cost. CNN estimates the final price tag for a simple bailout could top out at $130 billion for the federal government. In addition to the $39 billion GM and Chrysler have requested, parts dealers and suppliers have asked for bailouts, and consumers may be lured into buying Detroit’s products with tax credits and other incentives that could cost the government billions more.

Auto parts suppliers want $18.5 billion in guarantees for loans owed to them by GM and Chrysler. Auto dealers want $5 billion to $20 billion in loan guarantees so that they can finance their inventories. While Ford has said it doesn’t need federal help right now, it initially asked in December for $9 billion in loans and could re-submit the request.

Finally, the “Cash for Clunkers” tax credit, in which owners of inefficient vehicles more than 10 years old would receive a $10,000 tax credit for buying new efficient vehicles, is still floating around Congress is various guises after being stripped out of the stimulus package. The estimated cost to taxpayers is about $16 billion for the tax credit. Sen. Barbara Mikulski of Maryland has trumpeted a proposal to allow car buyers to deduct interest from their auto loans on their taxes, which was also taken out of the stimulus bill in favor of a deduction for sales taxes on new car purchases. The auto industry has heavily backed these bills, believing that they would stimulate demand for new cars.

GM and Chrysler have made dire predictions for what might happen if they go into bankruptcy. They said that if they were unable to find loans or the government did not lend to them, the move could cost the federal government hundreds of billions of dollars in lost tax revenue. CNN’s xperts agree with this analysis, and say that a bankruptcy of the magnitude of GM’s has not ever occurred before.

Ken Lewenza, head of Canadian Auto Workers (CAW), urged the UAW not to accept any cuts in wages or benefits during United Auto Workers’ upcoming negotiations with the Big Three auto companies in light of the financial problems facing the industry and the $17.4 billion bailout offered to the auto companies by the Bush administration.

Lewenza said that he hoped incoming American President Barack Obama would rescind requirements that the auto companies cut wages and benefits when Obama takes office on January 20th.

Lewenza stated:

“I’m hoping on Jan. 20 president-elect Obama will recognize that the challenges in the auto industry aren’t the result of collective bargaining issues. It’s a global financial crisis, it’s market conditions. The wage rates that the UAW have are competitive.”

Mark Meldrum of the University of Windsor in Canada pointed out that UAW workers’ jobs require few skills and those workers will probably see pay cuts of $10 an hour: “They will be paid what they’re worth.”

The CAW split off from the UAW in 1985.

Eugene Robinson of The Washington Post wanted a bailout, and he’s blaming Senate Republicans for blocking it. “But only a free-market fundamentalist, a lunatic or a Senate Republican — perhaps that’s redundant — would conclude that now is the moment to hasten Detroit’s demise.”

Meanwhile, a friend (a longtime Democrat) tells me that he never thought that “Senate Republicans” would be his heroes, but they are today.

The AP reports that as of last night, chances of a GM/Ford/Chrysler bailout by the American people have diminished.

While automakers want the taxpayer-funded cushion to get through a “bleak and dangerous December,” members of Congress have been attacked by their constituents for agreeing to the previous $700+ billion Wall Street bailout. Apparently, “Bailout fatigue has set in” on Capitol Hill.

GM has already said that without a bailout, it will run out of cash by year’s end. Democrats pushing a bailout stated in legislation put forth on Monday that the auto industry employs 355,000 workers directly, one million retired dependents, and 4.5 million in related industries. However, does this separate out foreign automakers from domestic ones? The 4.5 million employed in related industries surely benefit from Toyota and Honda as well. Toyota and Honda might not do as well if their competitors are propped up.

A bailout of sorts was already approved in September, consisting of loans for the auto makers to develop alternative energies. Republican leaders want to lift the restriction on that money and give it to the automakers, while Democrats want to keep the previous allocation and add another $25 billion, meaning $50 billion in total for automakers.

Senate leaders don’t think that, as of this time, the auto bailout has enough votes to pass and are holding the bill until they can get a required 60-vote supermajority in the Senate.

Reuters reports that Americans are thinking twice about bailing out American car companies, feeling that a bailout would encourage bad business practices and make it harder to reform the companies for the better.

Congressional Democrats have proposed a $25 billion bailout of car companies, including GM (General Motors), Ford and Chrysler. They are hoping to pass it in the special lame-duck session of Congress that began today.

The three American car companies, who have fallen behind Honda and Toyota for years, see the current economic downturn and recent Wall Street bailout as reason enough to ask for their own bailout from the federal government.

On Friday, Goldman Sachs suspended its rating for GM, declaring that the company needs $22 billion to survive. Chrysler was also said by Goldman to need a similar amount of money.

The three companies have ruled out Chapter 11 bankruptcy or restructuring.

Arizona Republican Senator Jon Kyl has come out against a proposed bailout, saying that companies that made bad business decisions need to pay for it and not at the expense of others.

The three automakers have claimed that they cannot make a profit manufacturing small cars. Scott Porter of Los Angeles tells Reuters: “If you cannot make a profit then you go bankrupt.”