That's a rhetorical question, right? And, you ask it in the future tense. Rest assured, the successor has already been selected. Someone from GM will step up, temporarily. But, soon a permanent replacement will be made and you can't bet a month's pay they're an Obama donor.
The Obama administration, however, has decided not to require the automakers to immediately repay government loan money they previously received, since that would force both companies into Chapter 11 bankruptcy.
A senior administration official told FOX News, “calling in the loans would not be a productive exercise for the American taxpayer since the companies don’t have the money [to repay the loans] and it would simply put the companies into uncontrolled Chapter 11.”
Obama was set to make the announcement at 11 a.m. Monday in the White House’s foyer.
Instead, the administration has decided to give Chrysler 30 days to work out a deal with Fiat and GM 60 days to come up with a new restructuring plan. Both companies will be provided with “some working capital” during those time periods.
A senior official said, “bankruptcy is not the goal,” although there may be a “role for a court supervised process to effect the restructuring... different from Chapter 11.”
Two additional parts of the plan include the government standing behind both car companies’ warranties during the restructuring periods and the White House naming a Labor Department official to minimize the impact of restructuring on communities where auto plants are located, by coordinating support for workers and their families.
GM and Chrysler, which employ about 140,000 workers in the U.S., face a Tuesday deadline to submit completed restructuring plans, but neither company is expected to finish its work.
GM owes roughly $28 billion to bondholders. Chrysler owes about $7 billion in first- and second-term debt, mainly to banks. GM owes about $20 billion to its retiree health care trust, while Chrysler owes $10.6 billion.