During President Obama’s  news conference, regarding his first 100 days in office, he made several attempts to calm the fears regarding the nation’s auto industry.  He mentioned that Chrysler coming up with a plan made him quite hopeful, more so than he has been in the last 30 days, and he could now see a resolution that maintains a viable Chrysler auto company.

The President stated that the unions have made enormous sacrifices, and potential concessions that they can live with.  Regarding  GM, Obama said that they’re still in the process of presenting their plans. He also said that GM  has always created lots of good products, and if they are able to get through these difficult times and engage in some of the very difficult choices that they’ve already made, they can emerge a strong, competitive, viable company.

President Obama went on to say that he would love to get the U.S. government out of the auto business as quickly as possible, noting that there are circumstance in which a bad recession compounded some great weaknesses that already existed in the auto industry. He also said that he considers it his obligation to make sure that any taxpayer dollars that are in place to support the auto industry are aimed not at short-term fixes that continue these companies as wards of the state, but rather institutes the kind of restructuring that allows them to be strongly competitive in the future.

Getting back to the Chrysler bankruptcy scenario Obama mentioned that it was the prudent and appropriate thing for Chrysler  to engage in the filings, because they had to prepare for possible contingencies. It’s not yet clear that they’re going to have to use them. The fact that the major debt-holders appear ready to make concessions means that even if they ended up having to go through some sort of bankruptcy, it would be a very quick type of bankruptcy. They would then be able to continue operating and emerge on the other side, in a much stronger position.

The president reiterated that his goal was to make sure that there is  a strong, viable, competitive auto industry in place, and for that to happen some tough choices are being made. He noted that there will be significant hardships involved, particularly for the workers and the families in these communities.

One of the questions asked to the president, at the news conference, referred to the fact that he is currently the chief shareholder of a couple of very large mortgage giants, and about to become the chief shareholder of a car company, probably two. The questioner asked the president what kind of shareholder will he be, and what is the government’s role as the keeper of public trusts and bonds in companies that will hopefully revert eventually to public companies.

Obama answered by saying that our first role should be “shareholders that are looking to get out,” and he further stated that “he did not want to run auto companies, mortgage companies or banks.” He reminded that he has two wars to run already and more than enough to do, and the sooner we can give up ownership of those companies the better off we’re gonna be. Good news to hear!