President Barack Obama is sending a blunt message to Detroit automakers: To survive—and win more government help—they must remake themselves top to bottom. Driving home the point, the White House ousted the General Motors chairman as it rejected GM and Chrysler’s restructuring plans.
Obama is set to elaborate on that message today when he announces what his White House told reporters over the weekend: Neither GM nor Chrysler submitted acceptable plans to receive additional federal bailout money.
GM chairman Rick Wagoner became the most conspicuous casualty of that decision, forced out Sunday as the White House indicated Detroit must make management and other changes if it hopes to survive—and that the Obama administration will have a hands-on role in those changes.
Speaking on NBC’s Today, Michigan Gov. Governor Jennifer Granholm said Wagoner “clearly is a sacrificial lamb” who stepped aside “for the future of the company and for the future of jobs.”
Obama said the companies must do more to receive additional financial aid from the government. “We think we can have a successful U.S. auto industry. But it’s got to be one that’s realistically designed to weather this storm and to emerge—at the other end—much more lean, mean and competitive than it currently is,” Obama said on CBS’ Face the Nation broadcast Sunday.
