It will take more than one “car czar” to help get the embattled U.S. auto industry back on track, President Barack Obama has decided. Instead, his administration is establishing a presidential task force to direct the restructuring of General Motors Corp. (GM) and Chrysler LLC, a senior administration official said Sunday night.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and National Economic Council Director Lawrence Summers will oversee the across-the-government panel, the official said, speaking on the condition of anonymity because no announcement has been made.
GM and Chrysler are expected to submit restructuring plans to the government by Tuesday, the deadline for showing how they can repay billions in loans and become viable in spite of a huge drop in auto sales.
The auto industry task force is just one element of Obama’s plan to revive the flailing economy. On Tuesday he’s flying to Denver to sign the $787 billion stimulus bill into law, taking his economic message to the American people, who are giving him high marks for handling the crisis.
Here’s an idea: Let’s call it “American Leyland.”
I am sure that we are about to see some makes disappear from the scene, ala Plymouth, Oldsmobile, Studebaker-Packard Corporation (which went out of business years ago), etc.
Maybe they’ll just move the GM and Chrysler plants across the Great Lakes into Canada or open a replacement plant in Mexico. Shoot, my Dodge Caravan was ‘hencho en Mexico’ anyway!
#3, right in some ways. Better keep one of the Big Three though we might need to restore one of the “Arsenals of Democracy”. One of the things that brought about recovery to our nation was WWII. Pray that we don’t have to experience a WWIII to “revive” us.