Obama wouldn't take them on.

Skeptics say GM needed to make deeper cuts

Many bankruptcy and turnaround efforts argue the automaker should have taken a more aggressive cost-cutting stance in bankruptcy. GM could have asked the court to void the labor contract in order to cut the pay and benefits of hourly workers and slash its network of dealerships immediately.

"It looks more like business as usual than real cost cutting," said Richard Tilton, an analyst with credit research firm Covenant Review.

Tilton said GM should be able to emerge from bankruptcy quickly, as is planned. But he said it will still find itself in a difficult competitive position in a very weak market for auto sales overall, neither of which point to long-term success.

He's also worried that, despite vows from the Obama administration and GM officials to the contrary, more federal help will be required to get GM through this current downturn.........

......Jeffrey Manning, a managing director at investment banking firm Trenwith Securities, which specializes in bankruptcy and restructuring, said he's worried about both GM and Chrysler agreeing to keep their underfunded pension plans in place in order to get the United Auto Workers union to agree to the bankruptcy plan. Many companies use bankruptcy to get out from pension obligations.

GM's pension plans face a deficit of between $12 billion and $13 billion, he estimates.

"You've left these anchors on both businesses," he said. Pushing off financial problems further down the road "is how they got into trouble in the first place" he said.

http://money.cnn.com/2009/06/02/news...