Should we be afraid? Confused? You betcha.

The Wall Street Journal is reporting (subscription required) that Democratic leaders have delayed until December a vote on a bailout package for the U.S. automakers.

Democratic leaders said Thursday there is no deal on aid yet for the Big Three U.S. auto makers, and asked the chief executives of those companies to return to Congress with concrete plans on how they would use federal funds to turn their companies around before getting any money from Washington.

In the meantime, Chinese carmakers SAIC and Dongfeng have plans to acquire GM and Chrysler. They've already got all of our cash; they might as well do something with it.