U.S. Is Said to Prepare Filing for Chrysler Bankruptcy

The New York Times ^ | April 23, 2009 | By MICHELINE MAYNARD and MICHAEL J. de la MERCED

[MaestroLC]

The accomplishments of Obama's first 100 days continue to mount...

[jalisco555]

Bush should have done this. How many billions down the drain?

[MittFan08]

“Bush should have done this. How many billions down the drain?”

Have you read the plan? It’s not a bankruptcy - it’s a UAW bailout with a “bankruptcy” label. Taxpayers pay for the UAW health and pension benefits. It’s an outrage.

[rovenstinez]

So now YOU the people can keep on paying the retirement benefits for overfed, underworked, overpaid auto makers in Detroit that rode their pony into the ground!

[Thane_Banquo]

The seeds of Chrysler’s and GM’s bankruptcies were sown decades before Obama came into office, when labor liberals decided to make it damned near impossible for a company to say no to any demand from a labor union.

[TSgt]

United Automobile Workers union, whose members’ pensions and retiree health care benefits would be protected as a condition of the bankruptcy filing...

I wish my 401K would have been protected...Can you spare a bailout brother?

[Petronski]

Smells like a Sunday night filing.

[Oldexpat]

The devil is in the details. What guarantees are they really given the UAW? Are they saving the UAW at the expense of the lenders?

[nyconse]

Yes it is an outrage, but if the autos go, we will pay for the pensions anyway just like the Airlines.

[jalisco555]

Have you read the plan? It’s not a bankruptcy - it’s a UAW bailout with a “bankruptcy” label. Taxpayers pay for the UAW health and pension benefits. It’s an outrage.

Which is why Bush should have done this. He should have forced a real Chapter 11, not this phony UAW bailout in disguise. The billions down the drain are in the future as well as the past. And if you think this is bad wait until GM files.

[Dedbone]

United Automobile Workers union, whose members’ pensions and retiree health care benefits would be protected as a condition of the bankruptcy filing

Since when are conditions a part of Chapter 11?

[Russ]

I can't even imagine the uproar from Democrats if Bush would have done that. Not necessarily because it would have been right or wrong but because it was Bush.

[D-fendr]

Bush should not have done this, or what he did.

The Treasury Department is preparing a Chapter 11 bankruptcy filing for Chrysler

Is appalling.

Treasury has an agreement in principle with the United Automobile Workers union

Who cares? It's Chrysler's business and Treasury should have no say in their bk decisions.

[Kansas58]

HUH?
How in the world can the petitioner, in a BK filing, dictate terms?

The pensions are protected by the Pension Benefit Guarantee Corporation. Besides, Pensions liabilities are supposed to be funded in advance of need, FAR in advance of need, so I do not see the relevance here. It is just Obama trying to act like he is doing something.

On the health insurance issue? This is ridiculous! Why should GM continue to fund an expense that does NOTHING for the current competitiveness of GM?

[ChicagahAl]

"United Automobile Workers union, whose members’ pensions and retiree health care benefits would be protected as a condition of the bankruptcy filing"

I find this heinous.

Let them get 22¢ on the $ like the bondholders. They've been overcompensated and underworked for years. It will average out.

[nyconse]

They are sacrificing current workers though it appears. I don’t know how many more job losses we can absorb and still climb out of this mess.

[iopscusa]

Has the Treasury Department previously been involved in the preparation of a Chapter 11 bankruptcy? I thought the Justice dept. would be the likely place to file.

[jalisco555]

See my post number 10.

[kenth]

The Treasury has an agreement in principle with the United Automobile Workers union, whose members’ pensions and retiree health care benefits would be protected as a condition of the bankruptcy filing

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How about Chrysler itself, did 0 discuss this with them at all? Or better yet, have they discussed it with the American people who are going to keep the UAW and by extension, democrat votes, flush with cash?

[Anti-Bubba182]

"..The only major question that remains unresolved is what happens to Chrysler’s lenders, who hold $6.9 billion in company debt. The government’s most recent offer, presented Wednesday, would give the company’s lenders about 22 cents on the dollar, or $1.5 billion, and a 5 percent equity stake in a reorganized Chrysler..."

That practically guarantees no private entity will be lending money to a reorganized Chrysler. The US is in the Car Business permanently if they want Chrysler to survive.