FNC is reporting that ABC is reporting that the White House has announced it IS going to bail out GM and Chrysler.  They aren’t giving any details yet, but I’m sure they will be forthcoming.  Not a good sign.

Update: FNC is reporting that the President is making $17.4 B in loans from the TARP fund available to the auto makers, $13.4 B now and $4 B when the second part of TARP is released.  Reportedly Hank Paulson will be in charge again, not a “car czar,” and the automakers will have to show “viability” by March.  I’m sure that term is not defined anywhere in the plan.

During Bush’s presser, he said the automakers would have to get all stakeholders to make concessions, including debt holders, management, and labor.  He said “experts” had to believe their plans would be a meaningful way toward profitability.  This is a loan for an “orderly restructuring” outside of bankruptcy.  He said if they didn’t make the necessary changes by March 31, 2009, the loans would come due and the automakers might be forced into bankruptcy anyway.

Stewart Varney at FNC summarized the two biggest conditions: 1) wages and work rules must be “competitive” to foreign companies operating in the U.S., and 2) retirement compensation must be on solid footing.  He also said that other conditions include 1) executive pay limitations, 2) jobs banks are gone, 3) taxpayers are the first to be paid back, 4) no new dividends are paid, and 5) the government gets to look over the books.  Varney pointed out that all the words being used are vague and squishy, and this is pretty much Bush punting the problem to the Obama administration.  He predicts the UAW will temporarily go along so they can make it into a more friendly administration and Congress which will make those squishy terms more firm, but in the UAW’s favor.

Update II: Hot Air has the video.