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Reuters – The U.S. government’s $1 billion "cash for clunkers" auto sales incentive program reached its funding limit unexpectedly after an avalanche of business exhausted its funds, an Obama administration official said late Thursday.
Auto dealers began offering government-backed rebates in early July of up to $4,500 to consumers who traded-in their gas-guzzlers for more fuel-efficient vehicles.
But the Transportation Department will need additional cash after rebates for nearly 250,000 vehicles jammed the pipeline nationwide.
Traverse City Record Eagle – General Motors and Chrysler, which have received $17.4 billion in federal aid and face upcoming deadlines to restructure their companies, will designate the auto parts suppliers that need the financing, giving them a large role in determining which suppliers will survive. Ford Motor Co., which has not sought the government aid, has said it does not intend to use the program.
The White House sent a team of 15 people to Detroit on Wednesday to work with GM over the next two weeks to accelerate the restructuring process, an administration official said.
Reuters – President Barack Obama has decided to launch a government task force for restructuring the struggling U.S. auto industry instead of naming a "car czar" with sweeping powers, a senior administration official said on Sunday.
Obama is appointing Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner as his "designee" for overseeing auto bailout loans and as co-head of the new high-level panel together with White House economic adviser Lawrence Summers, the official said.
But Obama, who took office on January 20 and last week won congressional approval of a $787 billion economic stimulus program, has dropped the idea of having a single appointee empowered to handle the politically sensitive task of revamping America’s once-mighty auto sector.
"There is no ‘car czar,’" the official said, speaking on condition of anonymity.
