President Barack Obama said it best. “We cannot, we must not, and we will not let our auto industry simply vanish.” However, this seems to be the end all to the struggles America has been put through in current months.

Due to the recent economic recession, many industries and corporations are struggling to remain in business, while stocks plummet and inflation affects prices of all consumer products. Many companies are making bailout plans, and as of April 27, 2009, General Motors has joined in and outlined a major restructuring plan to resurface in this disconcerting economy.

During the upcoming year, GM plans to give the government more than 50% of its common stock, and in return, eliminating half of the loans the government pays out to the company – nearly $27 billion in loans; loans that the company doesn’t have the money to pay back for, due to the current state of the failing economy. Statistics add up to the company cutting nearly 21,000 hourly factory jobs, getting rid of 42% of GM dealers, effectively phasing out one of it’s oldest selling cars – Pontiac.

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Analysts are expecting GM to cut back to just two divisions in upcoming months – Cadillac and Chevrolet – while Pontiac, as well as Buick, GMC, Saturn, and Hummer will be totaled in production lines. However, Henderson says only the “four strong core brands” will survive – Chevy, Cadillac, Buick, and GMC trucks. The futures of the Hummer, Saturn, and Saab brands will be resolved by the end of this year. The company has also said that it plans to decrease it’s dealership ranks by 42 percent, cutting them from 6,246 to roughly 3,605.

In a public statement made, General Motors CEO Fritz Henderson said, “The objective here is not to survive. The objective is to develop an operating plan that allows us to win… If it can’t be done outside of a bankruptcy, we’ll do it through a bankruptcy.” The plan is to take as much of an advantage of their current situation as possible, make the best of it, and pull out of an economic crisis without falling into the same bankruptcy that many top companies have already fallen victim to. He goes on to say that this bailout plan is aimed to be a one time thing. “We only want to do this once,” Henderson told reporters.