http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20090329/pl_politico/20625

The Obama administration asked Rick Wagoner, the chairman and CEO of General Motors, to step down and he agreed, a White House official said.

On Monday, President Obama is to unveil his plans for the auto industry, including a response to a request for additional funds by GM and Chrysler. The plan is based on recommendations from the Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry, headed by the Treasury Department.

The White House confirmed Wagoner was leaving at the government's behest after The Associated Press reported his immediate departure, without giving a reason.

The surprise announcement about the classically iconic American corporation is perhaps the most vivid sign yet of the tectonic change in the relationship between business and government in this era of subsidies and bailouts.

Wagoner has been CEO for 8 years and at GM for more than 30. The company has not said who will replace him.  GM has received $13.4 billion in government aid, and has been seeking $16.6 billion more.

Industry sources had said the White House planned very tough medicine in Monday's announcement, which turned out to be an understatement. And it went to the very top. The measures to be imposed by the government will have a dramatic effect on workers, unions, suppliers, bondholders, shareholders, retirees and the communities where plants are located, the sources said.

GM and Chrysler have to prove their viability as a condition of a federal bailout released under former President George W. Bush, and both have asked the current administration for more money.  Ford has not sought federal funds because it had secured a line of credit just before money dried up.

Obama said Friday in an interview with CBS’s “Face the Nation,” broadcast Sunday, that the carmakers were going to have to do more.

“There's been some serious efforts to deal with a combination of long-standing problems in the auto industry,” the president told host Bob Schieffer. “What we're trying to let them know is that we want to have a successful auto industry, U.S. auto industry. 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.

“And that's gonna mean a set of sacrifices from all parties involved — management, labor, shareholders, creditors, suppliers, dealers. Everybody's gonna have to come to the table and say it's important for us to take serious restructuring steps now in order to preserve a brighter future down the road."

Schieffer followed up: “But they're not there yet.”

Obama added: “They're not there yet.”

The administration calls the task force “a cabinet-level group that includes the secretaries of Transportation, Commerce, Labor and Energy. It will also include the chairman of the President’s Council of Economic Advisers, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, the EPA administrator, and the director of the White House Office of Energy and Climate Change. The Task Force will be led by Treasury Secretary [Tim] Geithner and [National Economic Council] Director Larry Summers.”

The panel’s chief adviser is Steven Rattner, a well-known investment banker and former New York Times reporter.

Just the tip of the iceberg.

We now have POTUS singling out companies and making hiring/firing decisions within private industry. We are on the precipice a new dawn of socialism and social engineering like we have never seen.

I just pray for my country and keep voting against this sort of crap.

Someone needs to ask Obama to step down.

Thank goodness we got rid of Bush and his unprecedented Power Grab, overextending the legitimate authority of Executive Branch.  We all hoped for a change and Obama would NEVER EVER do all those things we accused Bush of doing!
/sarcasm off

The next CEO will most likely be da rankin ACORN member.  Isn't this why our tax dollars fund this organization??  Gotta spread that wealth bro..........

It's a brave new world, bitches.

Fine with me if he fell down all 98 steps at the Lincoln Memorial to the wadin pool

1. doesnt seem folks have the money to by cars, so why do they need bail otu money?

2, No one will just tell this guy no. His ego keeps getting bigger and bigger.

3. Fuck Obama

It's worse than that.  Within hours of running him off, Congress approved another 1 Zillion Dollars (or some giant amount) to be given to GM......it was a condition of him leaving.  Isn't that called, um, uh, EXTORTION?????

Oh, ya, and this Geithner weasel must have nudie pictures of somebody's wife.  Is Obama gonna put this fuck-tard in charge of EVERYTHING?

Obama: Step down son, we own your ass.

Just remember, the US Government does NOT negotiate with terrorists.....   It makes for unfair competition.