Independent candidate for president Ralph Nader released a statement on Wednesday in which he criticizes the three biggest auto companies in the United States, and the government which bails The Big Three out whenever they are in trouble.

The statement came after Ford and General Motors announced substantial losses in the second quarter namely $15.5 billion and $8.7 billion respectively. Chrysler, in the meantime, ‘refuses to reveal its financial standing,’ Nader added.

“They have themselves to thank for it,” Nader said in the statement.

However, Nader said, they refuse to take responsibility for their own actions. Instead of taking their losses, and changing their policies, these companies hire lobbyists whose job it is to convince Congress to ‘loan’ money to The Big Three.

Democrats and Republicans have both proved to be more than willing to bail out these companies in the past. Back in 1979 already, Congress bailed out Chrysler which was at the verge of bankruptcy. Even though Congress bailed Chrysler out back then, it ‘wasn’t as much of a pushover’ as it is now, Nader said.

‘As a part of the Chrysler deal in the late Seventies, the government took out preferred stock warrants and after the company turned itself around and repaid its loan seven years early, the government ended up cashing out, receiving $400 million in the appreciated stock.’ Furthermore, he added: ‘Congress made clear to Chrysler that it had specific conditions the company had to meet before receiving the loan guarantee. It forced the company to contribute $162,500,000 into an employee stock ownership trust fund geared to benefit at least 90 percent of its employees, design more fuel efficient autos to help reduce consumption of foreign oil, and prohibit wages and benefits from falling below a level set three months before the legislation was passed.’

This time around Congress does not ask anything like the above from The Big Three however. According to Nader this is not out of ideological reasons or even because saving these companies is so important for the economy; no, it’s due to the influence of rich companies over the federal government, Nader argued.

Nader first became well known and popular among some decades ago when he took on the auto industry. Cars, Nader wrote back in 1965, were not safe enough. Thousands of people were killed every year; the auto mobile industry, he later argued, was aware of the facts but refused to make cars safer because they were afraid their profit would fall.

The issue, however, became popular among normal Americans and concerned politicians. Hearings were organized and research conducted. The automobile industry, however, was not willing to sit idle waiting for politicians to agree with Nader; General Motors tried to destroy Nader’s image. It hired private detectives, tapped his phone, investigated Nader’s past and even paid prostitutes to make an offer to Nader GM’s executives hoped he would not refuse.

In the end, Congress passed the 1966 National Traffic and Motor Vehicle Safety Act. The act established the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration, and marked a historic shift in responsibility for automobile safety (which shifted from the consumer to the manufacturer). It also forced manufacturers to make cars safer by building safety belts into every car they produced.

As a result, the fatality rate of car drivers went down considerably.

Now, after five runs for president, Nader does what he did before he became a household name; taking on the Big Three and those who enable their, in his eyes, irresponsible behavior.

Today’s U.S. Congress, however, is less inclined to let the automobile industry suffer for its own mistakes. Last year December agreed to loan $25 billion to them, Nader recalled in the statement.

‘This corporate Congress cannot be expected to issue serious demands, set tough conditions, or impose strict rules on the auto companies to ensure their workers receive fair pay and benefits, and prevent their fat-cat executives from making off big while leaving their companies in shambles,’ he added.