In a televised speech from the White House at 16:00 UTC today, President of the United States Barack Obama presented a reorganization plan following the 12:00 UTC announcement by General Motors that it had filed for bankruptcy and Chapter 11 protection from its creditors, the largest bankruptcy of a U.S. manufacturing company. President Obama delivers his speech today in the Grand Foyer of the White House today. Describing the problem with the company as one that had been "decades in the making," Obama explained the rationale behind his proposed reorganization plan for General Motors. He stated that his intent was not to "perpetuat[e] the bad business decisions of the past," and that loaning General Motors money, when debt was its problem, would have been doing exactly that. His plan, he stated, was for the United States government, in conjunction with the governments of Canada and Ontario (which he thanked for their roles alongside the government of Germany which he thanked for its role in selling a corporate stake in GM Europe), to become shareholders in General Motors. The United States government would hold a 60\% stake. The government will give GM a capital infusion of US$30 billion in addition to the funds it has already received. Of the government ownership he stated that he refused "to let General Motors and Chrysler become wards of the state", and described the bankruptcy of Chrysler , and the bankruptcy of General Motors that he envisioned as being "quick, surgical, bankruptcies". He pointed to the bankruptcy of Chrysler as an example of what he envision for General Motors, but stated that General Motors was a "more complex company" than Chrysler. He said to the general public that "I will not pretend that the hard times are over." He described the financial hardship that some — shareholders, communities based around GM plants, GM dealers, and others — would undergo as a "sacrifice for the next generation" on their parts, so that their children could live in "an America that still makes things," concluding that one day the United States might return to a time when the maxim (a widely-repeated mis-quotation of what Charles Erwin Wilson once testified before the U.S. Senate when nominated for the position of Secretary of Defense) would once more be true that "what is good for General Motors is good for the United States of America."
In a televised speech from the White House at 16:00 UTC today, Barack Obama presented a reorganization plan following the 12:00 UTC announcement by that it had filed for bankruptcy and protection from its creditors, the largest bankruptcy of a U.S. manufacturing company. President Obama delivers his speech today in the of the today. Describing the problem with the company as one that had been "decades in the making," Obama explained the rationale behind his proposed reorganization plan for General Motors. He stated that his intent was not to "perpetuat[e] the bad business decisions of the past," and that loaning General Motors money, when debt was its problem, would have been doing exactly that. His plan, he stated, was for the United States government, in conjunction with the governments of and (which he thanked for their roles alongside the government of Germany which he thanked for its role in selling a corporate stake in GM Europe), to become shareholders in General Motors. The United States government would hold a 60\% stake. The government will give GM a capital infusion of US$30 billion in addition to the funds it has already received. Of the government ownership he stated that he refused "to let General Motors and Chrysler become wards of the state", and described the , and the bankruptcy of General Motors that he envisioned as being "quick, surgical, bankruptcies". He pointed to the bankruptcy of Chrysler as an example of what he envision for General Motors, but stated that General Motors was a "more complex company" than Chrysler. He said to the general public that "I will not pretend that the hard times are over." He described the financial hardship that some — shareholders, communities based around GM plants, GM dealers, and others — would undergo as a "sacrifice for the next generation" on their parts, so that their children could live in "an America that still makes things," concluding that one day the United States might return to a time when the maxim (a widely-repeated mis-quotation of what once testified before the U.S. Senate when nominated for the position of Secretary of Defense) would once more be true that "what is good for General Motors is good for the United States of America."
D
President of the United States
D
General Motors
D
Chapter 11
R
Grand Foyer of the White House
of the
R
Canada and Ontario
and
D
bankruptcy of Chrysler
D
Charles Erwin Wilson