ONE HOUR DIFFERENT STORY futes down 40

By Chris Isidore, CNNMoney.com senior writer

Last Updated: December 11, 2008: 10:04 PM ET
Senate edges closer to auto bailout deal
Democrats appear ready to compromise with leading Republican critic of bailout, but fate of bill to provide $14 billion in loans to GM and Chrysler still in doubt.


Negotiations to bring measure up for vote fall short, possibly dooming GM, Chrysler to bankruptcy.


December 11, 2008: 11:31 PM ET
NEW YORK (CNNMoney.com) -- Hopes for Congressional approval of a bailout of the U.S. auto industry appeared to fall apart late Thursday night as Senate leaders said Democrats and Republicans were unable to reach a compromised deal that could get the bipartisan support needed to bring the measure for the vote.

The 52-35 vote followed the collapse of negotiations between Senate Democrats and Republicans seeking a compromise that all sides could accept.

"We have worked and worked and we can spend all night tonight, tomorrow, Saturday, and Sunday, and we're not going to get to the finish line," Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D.-Nev.,said on the Senate floor before the vote. "That's just the way it is. There's too much difference between the two sides."

Reid acknowledged that the bill would not survive the procedural vote.
Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, R-Ky., said the sticking point was the United Auto Workers' refusal to set a "date certain" to put employees at U.S. auto manufacturers at "parity pay" with U.S. employees at foreign automakers in the United States.

Currently, analysts estimate the union workers at U.S. automakers make about $3 to $4 per hour more than the non-union U.S. employees of foreign automakers like Toyota and Honda, according to the Center for Automotive Research.