“Make no mistake: The Whitehouse and the task force overseeing the restructuring of both GM and Chrysler since February are calling the shots.”

You can take a look at Welch’s complete article here, but I will point out a few interesting highlights from his article in the following.

“Treasury has a couple dozen staffers and executives from Boston Consulting Group (BCG) scrutinizing operational details at the car company. (BCG is getting paid $7 million from the government for its work on both GM and Chrysler.)”

“Some GM insiders fret that Treasury’s key players have precious little industry experience.”

The head of the Treasury Task Force is Steven Rattner, the Wall Street financier and co-founder and Managing Principal of the investment firm, Quadrangle Group. (Yes, this is the same Rattner who is being investigated for his alleged connection to a scandal involving a New York State retirement fund.) No one on the Treasury Task Force has any experience in the car industry.

Welch also reported that a dozen Treasury staffers and outside consultants recently descended on GM, and pushed them to dump Buick and GMC, in addition to Pontiac, Hummer, Saab, and Saturn. The staffers said that Toyota was successful with just two brands—Toyota and Lexus—why couldn’t GM just sell Chevrolet and Cadillac? After GM pointed out that Buick and GMC were moneymakers, and that Buick was in high demand in China…Treasury relented.

Treasury and BCG were not finished, however. The staffers and consultants made GM managers jaws drop when they questioned why GM was spending money to continue development of the Volt. Apparently, Treasury thinks the current lineup of gas-guzzling Chevrolets and Cadillacs is just fine.

Not to be outdone by staffers, one Treasury Official wanted to know when the new Chevy Malibu would go on sale. It has been in showrooms for 18 months.

I’ll bet Ford is glad they didn’t take any bailout money from the government.

Gee, I can hardly wait for these folks to take over my health care.