Consensus Grows At Senate Hearings: Reform Or Bankruptcy By March 31

As good an account of today’s Senate Hearing as I’ve seen:

Not long after this astonishing display, Sen Corker again had the floor, and he worked steadily towards a compromise based on reality. He pointed out that Gettelfinger literally could not force his union brothers to accept any sacrifices unless “bankruptcy is the endgame.” His solution: force the UAW to reduce its labor costs to transplant levels and turn at least half of VEBA into equity and get GM bondholders to drop their debt at 30 cents on the dollar by March 31, at which point the federal government would assume debtor-in-possession financing for a reorganization. He also recommended that Chrysler merge with GM and said that Ford was simply “tagging along” for money it admits it doesn’t need.