But we all know what happened after the U.S. car exec’s groveled. Politicians insisted that without their meddling, the entire industry would collapse, and so they went about meddling. The Congress tried to pass a “car bailout bill,” but it failed. President Bush then used his executive powers to take money from the TARP (bank bailout) funds, and doled-out a few billion to G.M. and Chrysler (Ford had to good sense to say “no thanks”). In doing this, Bush completely defied the will of the people and the Congress, and kept Chrysler and G.M. afloat just long enough for Obama to get inaugurated.

And one inauguration and two additional car bailouts later, President Obama has now kicked and punched his way to the point of having GM and Chrysler in a headlock, and both companies are at his mercy. With Chrysler, President Obama has drawn law suits for his interfering in the relationship between the company and its secured creditors. Additionally, Chrysler executives are fearful of Obama’s coercive efforts to “force” a Chrysler-Fiat merger, believing that Fiat is in even worse financial health than Chrysler itself. As for G.M., President Obama claims that "our goal is to help GM get back on its feet ... and get out quickly, " but the Administration’s behavior suggests that G.M. will be, indeed, “government motors” for the foreseeable future.

So despite all the “without us they will fail” predictions from Washington, after some $50 billion of our hard-earned money being handed-over, and now with two of the nation’s automakers in the hands of one individual - Barack Obama - the companies are still failing. Yet in the midst of the doom and gloom, and despite the predictions of President Obama, Senator Harry Reid and other congressional Democrats, an American business owner and entrepreneur sees opportunity in the car industry and is excited to jump-in.

Roger Penske isn’t asking for a “bailout.” He isn’t even asking for special government-subsidized financing for his purchase. He wants Saturn, a product line deemed to be one of the least attractive on the G.M. roster, because he believes that he can make money with it, and he’s willing to risk his money and his good reputation to make it happen. “This (Saturn) is still a good business” Penske stated, “and we’re going to make it better.” In the process, it is believed that Penske’s acquisition will in the short-run save some 13,000 American jobs, and eventually create more.

For some, it’s hard to believe. But all this benefit is being derived- - for Penske, for his associates, for the can industry and for the global economy - without the expenditure of more of our tax dollars, and without President Obama coercing it. It’s happening at the hands of free people, freely choosing to take risks, to innovate, to create, and to produce.

This is the reality of American-styled Capitalism at work. I’m quite certain that most members of Congress lost sight of this reality long ago, and I suspect that President Obama knows nothing about it at all.

But it is a reality that the American citizenry must never forget.