This is what I see in my mind when I watch the videos of auto industry executives testifying before Congress.
Background: The American auto companies are a complete disgrace. They are poorly managed, both in terms of making cars, and in keeping their finances in order. They had well over thirty years to reach a sustainable solution to their legacy cost problems, but instead chose to ignore it, instead throwing off the money that could have been solving it, as bonuses and dividends.
It's not much different than if I took out a business loan, dumped it in my friends' bank accounts instead of using it for my business, and then complained that I can't operate when that evil bank demands that I make interest payments for some reason.
The executives know this. So, they're forced into one final refuge: claiming about all the spillover damage when they fail -- which of course could be addressed *without* forking over so much money to failures. So, whenever I see them tell us why they are *so* deserving of taxpayer money, this is the image I get in my mind: someone so desperate for tons of free money, that he resorts to threatening cats, given how distorted his perceptions have become.
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