Ford Motor Company’s chairman said he was “horrified” by Congress’ treatment of Detroit’s auto industry last year, and is more resolved than ever not to take the federal government’s money.

Bill Ford said the way Congress treated Ford (NYSE:F), General Motors (NYSE:GM) and Chrysler last year scared and angered him.  

“The fallout from that, it was breathtaking to me, and not in a good way. I was alternately horrified and then angry at what was going on. But what’s been interesting, though, is I don’t think that’s shared on Main Street,” the chairman said in an interview with the Detroit Free Press. “I think there’s an enormous reservoir of goodwill towards Ford. And I think the fact that we’re seen as trying to pull ourselves up by our bootstraps and make it on our own is also resonating with people around the country.”

CEO Alan Mulally said taking loans from the government, even though Ford has lost billions recently, would severely limit the company’s freedom to innovate and run itself.

“We have the resources, and we are implementing our transformational plan … When you are owned by the U.S. government, you are in a different situation.”

Mulally roundly criticized the idea of bankruptcy, saying that Ford’s management would lose control of the company if it goes to court to shed liabilities.

Justin Miller is a political journalist based in Wayne County who has worked for Real Clear Politics, blogged for The Atlantic and covered the 2008 elections in Ohio for The New York Observer’s Politicker.com network of state politics news sites.