4/26/2007–A Dodge Ram pickup has bumpers attached and wired as it makes its way down the line at the DaimlerChrysler North Assembly Center. Post-Dispatch file photo

President Barack Obama’s financial recovery plans have been derided by the Republican leadership and some in his own Democratic party as excessive, profligate spending that will damage the economy for years to come.

On Monday morning, he took a bold stance toward General Motors and Chrysler saying that they would need to revise the core of their business if they would receive any future government bailout money. Change significantly by a date certain or go it alone.

He told CEO Rick Wagoner to step aside after 32 years with GM and for the automaker, which received $17 billion along with Chrysler in federal bailout money late last year, to more radically retool the company within 60 days if it would receive a requested $16.6 billion more. The government will continue to supply working capital until then.

The fate of Chrysler, a privately held company, needs to merge with a partner, most likely international automaker Fiat based in Italy, or to survive without any more public subsidy. If it can merge, another $6 billion in loans could be available.

His tone was reminiscent of a parent at wits end with a recalcitrant teen-ager who defies making significant, radical change to pull him or herself out a downward sprial.

The president, who included an ode to “a pillar of our economy” industry and its workers, said the tough medicine is needed to cure a sick patient that must and will succeed in a new paradigm.

He told autoworkers and many in associated jobs as suppliers and vendors that “I will fight for you.” He also clearly said more tough times lie ahead as the industry morphs because of bad decisions not made by those workers.

The reality is that more jobs will be lost and more plants closed. Further cost cutting will be necessary but even more important is remolding operations and products that will surpass competition from around the world.

Unions and the working class were bedrocks of the Obama campaign. On Monday, he stood before the world and told them that it is time to atone for “past poor decisions.”

The automobile industry is a giant in the U.S. economy without doubt. How this unfolds is far beyond parochial interest in Michigan and automaking centers in the country, including the St. Louis metro area.

The collapse of Wall Street titans and international financial behemoths like AIG wreaked havoc worldwide as the credit crunch and toxic assets dragged gold-star companies into the ditch. Those tossed aside were  average workers and consumers for whom derivatives and the world market economy is mystical beyond their checking accounts, house or car loans and 401Ks.

Reordering the equivalent of gastric bypass surgery on the once muscular auto industry resonates in the gut.

Americans have bought these cars for decades, trusted them to carry their loved ones every day, changed the oil in their driveway and prided themselves in owning a prideful American product.

It cuts even deeper in places in the Midwest such as St. Louis where thousands of people have been employed in well-paying jobs coveted by many. Throughout the country, the local plant workers took great pride that their toil was widely respected.

Bonuses paid after AIG received billions in federal bailout funds created an incendiary political and public reaction, which was duly warranted.

But as the president sets hard deadlines for two American automakers to reform, it had a more visceral reaction. We might not know a lot hedge fund managers or online traders. But we do feel the community presence of auto plants, their workers and their products parked in many driveways.

The gauntlet has been laid. Tough love is hard to deliver because there is no guarantee that immediate hardship and pain will lead to a better place.

Americans should hope that the president nailed down the next step toward rebuilding. He also should adopt a similarly resolute stance with the financial bailout money by requiring strict timetables and tangible reform of business practices among the financial companies.