Auto officials meet with Geithner and Summers

Representatives of Detroit’s troubled automakers are meeting with Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and National Economic Council Chairman Lawrence Summers Friday to discuss the companies’ requests for more assistance to survive.

In tandem with the rest of the so-called “auto task force,” the officials will help decide the companies’ fate by the end of this month, when they are required to report on General Motors and Chrysler’s requests for additional assistance.

“The team is looking through those plans and figuring out how to be the best partner in what’s next for the auto industry,” White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said aboard Air Force One on Friday.

“So the best way to get the auto industry back up on its feet and selling cars again is to get the overall economy going,” Gibbs added. “You’ve got a lot of different — you’ve got a lot of different sort of aches and pains, but one sickness — and that’s the overall economy.”

Hedge fund manager Steve Rattner and former union adviser Ronald Bloom will travel to Detroit on Monday for additional meetings with auto industry officials, the Detroit News reported.