Obama found...

...a possibly workable solution!

Trying to jump-start gains in auto fuel efficiency after years of inaction, Sen. Barack Obama (D., Ill.) is proposing an unusual swap for the Big Three U.S. carmakers: Washington would pay some of Detroit's multibillion-dollar health costs in exchange for Detroit making cars that get higher gasoline mileage.

The federal government would pay 10 percent of the $6.7 billion in annual health costs for retirees that are weighing down General Motors Corp., Ford Motor Co., and DaimlerChrysler AG if they would commit to building more fuel-efficient cars, Obama proposed in a speech Tuesday before a panel at the National Governors Association conference.

He called it a "win-win proposal for the industry." ...

Equally significant, Obama's proposal breaks with liberal orthodoxy by shunning a call for Washington simply to order automakers to raise fuel-economy standards via federal regulation. ....

In an interview, Obama said U.S. automakers and unions that had fought higher fuel standards in the past "are a lot more prone to listen" now because of Detroit's financial woes.