November 17, 2008 Newsnight: Billions for the broken Big 3? Play video

(NECN: Jim Braude) - There's not much confusion over the terms of the partisan showdown looming in Washington. Democrats want to bailout Detroit car makers using 25 billion out of the fund that was set aside for banks. President Bush and most republicans want to re-direct a special 25 billion loan that was supposed to be for designing more fuel efficient cars.

The standoff could be a test of survival for GM, Ford and Chrysler.

On this segment of Newsnight, Jim Braude is joined by Mary Fifield of Mary Fifield Associates, one of the early organizers of support for Barack Obama, and Rober Roughsedge, an attorney and political commentator.