Although both General Motors and Chrysler included potential bankruptcy scenarios in the viability plans they presented to the federal government on Tuesday, February 17, both rejected such proceedings as a workable option.

At a press conference Rick Wagoner, CEO of GM said, "We believe bankruptcy would be a highly risky and highly costly process. The best bet remains to restructure outside of bankruptcy court."

In a teleconference, Bob Nardelli, CEO of Chrysler agreed, saying that bankruptcy "is not the course of action we're recommending. We're absolutely confident we can succeed."

To date, General Motors has received federal loans totaling $13.4 billion and is seeking another $9.1 billion plus a line of credit in the amount of $7.5 billion. Chrysler has received $4 billion of a requested $7 billion and says it needs another $2 billion on top of that for a total of $9 billion in federal aid.

GM's argument against bankruptcy is that it would actually increase the amount of bailout funds needed as the federal government would have to supply the money needed for the company to operate during the proceeding.

According to Nardelli, the scenarios were only included in the plans submitted because "we were required to include a scenario for what would happen if Chrysler failed."