According to David Axelrod, senior White House adviser to Barak Obama, speaking on ABC's "This Week" on Sunday, November 23, the president-elect supports congressional demands for long-term plans from U.S. automakers as a requirement for any taxpayer funded aid.

"We all have a stake in the survival and the prosperity of the auto industry," said Axelrod. "But in order to do that, they're going to have to retool and rationalize their industry for the future. If they don't do that, then there's very little that taxpayers can do to help them."

Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi, appearing on CBS' "Face the Nation," said, "There must be a business model that they work off of. No one would invest in a company without seeing that, nor should taxpayer dollars be invested without seeing that business model and that business plan."

The requested plans are due on December 2 and lawmakers will once again meet with the CEOs of the Detroit Big Three when Congress goes into session for the week of December 8. Hearings the week of November 17 did not go well for the executives, who were chastised for poor business practices and for coming to Washington in expensive private jets.

In comments delivered at a press conference after the contentious hearings, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid said, "What happened here in Washington this week has not been good for the auto industry. I know it wasn't planned but these guys flying in their big corporate jets doesn't send a good message to people in Searchlight, Nev., or Las Vegas, or Reno, or anyplace in this country. We want them to get their act together.