Chrysler and GM

The government is extending a 500 million and a 6 billion dollar loan to Chrysler and GM respectively. I'm not going to rehash why i think we should let them fail...but i am curious why we have to save them both? Can't we live without Chrysler who has designed 1 car over the last decade that doesn't make me want to throw up every time i see it; the Chrysler 300. I'm pretty sure the company only employs 25,000. That's not much more than Circuit City which we let fail.

The open markets should decide what companies are viable not the government. This is what we, America, preached to the rest of the world when China went through the Cultural Revolution and during the cold war. Open, Free markets usually make the right decisions. So, why are we changing this philosophy now? Why after close to a century as the number one country in world are we making an abrupt turn?