American automakers are reporting improving sales and record profits and hiring additional workers to meet surging demand.

But President Obama's bailout of the auto industry in is still a source of great controversy in this year's presidential election. Automakers' stock prices are way down, meaning that taxpayers haven't been able to recoup all of the bailout money given to General Motors GM and Chrysler Group.

Editorial: Did Ford Take Bailout Money Too? Yes They Did. - Chevy Hardcore

Here are the three big questions voters should ask themselves when deciding who's right about the auto bailout. This is central to the election debate over the bailout. Mitt Romney claims that if GM and Chrysler Group had gone through a privately-financed bankruptcy process, they would have emerged even stronger than they are today.

Bailout List: Banks, Auto Companies, and More | Eye on the Bailout | ProPublica

But many auto industry experts, including the Obama administration's former car czar, Steven Rattner, a Democrat, and former GM Vice Chairman Bob Lutz, a Republican, say there was no private-sector financing available in and the bailout was the only way to keep the companies alive. Who had the money? Without financing during bankruptcy, GM and Chrysler would have had to go out of business, taking down many suppliers. That would have likely caused bankruptcies at the healthier automakers such Ford Motor F , who would not have been able to get the parts they needed to build cars.

That is why Ford went to Capitol Hill in late pushing for the rescue of its rivals. The Center for Automotive Research, a well-respected Michigan think tank estimates that the bailout therefore saved 1. Even if one assumes private financing could have been found, what's clear from Romney's own criticism of the bailout is that the autoworkers at GM and Chrysler today would have been far worse off today than they were with the bailout.

The Unpopular, Successful Auto Bailout

The pension plans for United Auto Workers union members at the companies were basically left untouched. It's likely that without Treasury financing those pension plans would have been dumped on the government pension agency, reducing payments to many retirees.

Plus, automakers would have likely tried to cut wages in bankruptcy, as many companies do. That didn't happen during these bankruptcies since Treasury, not bankers, was calling the shots. Autos - new model smackdown. If the two automakers had gone out of business, it would have significantly cut taxes collected from the automakers, their suppliers and dealers, let alone from the 1. For the most part, the bailout is over. So the bailout debate is about what should have happened, rather than what should happen next.

But what happens next is important. Romney is on record saying he would sell Treasury's remaining shares immediately, while the Obama administration has shown more willingness to wait for the share price to recover. The Obama administration hopes that GM's share price will rise, recovering more of the taxpayers money. Perhaps the people most interested in having Treasury sell the shares as soon as possible are top executives of GM, whose pay is subject to restrictions associated with continued government ownership.

But GM officials insist that despite the "Government Motors" tag hung on it by bailout critics, Treasury is not calling the shots on business decisions such as which vehicles to build. Most stock quote data provided by BATS. Market indices are shown in real time, except for the DJIA, which is delayed by two minutes.

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