Make Cars, Not Synthetic Financial Products

I know that it is much more complicated than this, but why exactly do we make the American automakers jump through hoops for chump change (relatively speaking), but shovel untold billions down the maw of "the banks" (well, post-GLB, not just "the banks", but "financial institutions" as well) with hardly any questions asked? Could it have anything to do with the color of their collars? Just asking.