W hen it comes to automobile sales, California sets the pace for the nation.

Japan's Toyota is the leading seller of cars in California. Nationally, Toyota is on track this year to overtake General Motors as the No. 1 seller of cars.

The Big Three U.S. automakers – GM, Ford and Chrysler – are suffering huge losses and major layoffs. In September, Congress authorized $25 billion in loan guarantees for U.S. automakers to retool their factories to build fuel-efficient cars. Now the Big Three are seeking $50 billion on top of that. They shouldn't get it.

The Big Three find themselves in this situation for two main reasons:

• Over the last 30 years, they have fought tooth and nail against any efforts to build the cars of the future. Where foreign companies have moved to fuel-efficient, less-polluting cars, U.S. automakers have favored gas-guzzling trucks and SUVs. A symbol of this is the automakers' lawsuit trying to prevent California from implementing a 2002 law that would require the auto industry to cut its greenhouse gas emissions 30 percent by 2016 – equivalent to an average fuel economy level of 35.7 mpg.

U.S. automakers have lagged behind foreign companies in developing hybrid gas-electric cars with flex-fuel capability. They lag in the race to develop a triple-efficiency car (80 miles per gallon).

• The U.S. failure to address America's health care finance problems is dragging down the Big Three. Health care costs place U.S. automakers at a severe disadvantage with foreign competitors. U.S. automakers have large obligations for health care for 800,000 retired workers – money that could be spent on new plants or launching new vehicles. The lack of a national strategy on health care remains a major competitive disadvantage not just for automakers but for our economy as a whole.

So what to do? Before members of Congress – particularly House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Reps. George Miller and Henry Waxman and Sens. Dianne Feinstein and Barbara Boxer – consider a bailout for the Big Three, they should recmember United Airlines.

They should recall that the world's largest airline started losing market share and was no longer making a profit by 2000. Then came the drop-off in air travel after the 9/11 attacks. The airline came to the government for aid, but the Air Transportation Stabilization Board turned down its request for a $1.8 billion loan guarantee. So the airline filed for bankruptcy protection in December 2002. United finally emerged from bankruptcy after 38 months.

Bankruptcy gave the airline short-term protection from its creditors, the breathing space it needed to address its long-term problems. And the airline survived, emerging leaner and more efficient. There were job losses, but less than if the company had slowly bled to death.

The lesson should be clear in the case of the auto industry. Bankruptcy, not government bailout, is the best way to force the needed restructuring that would lead to an economically viable auto industry.

What Congress can do is act on health care. President-elect Barack Obama made health care a priority in his campaign. The troubles of U.S. automakers provide a prime opportunity for Obama, and Congress, to highlight the issue and get to work on solutions – for the Big Three and the rest of American businesses and workers.