'There isn't a Plan B,' he said.

GM's 37-page plan outlines cuts that otherwise would have been accomplished by filing bankruptcy, which would carry a stigma that would scare away shoppers. Those cuts include paying CEO Rick Wagoner a $1 salary, selling Saab, shrinking the Pontiac brand and talking to dealers about the future of Saturn.

The plan also explains how the automaker would spend the money and repay taxpayers by 2012. The plan includes deep cuts to a company that is bleeding cash and has lost almost $73 billion in the last four years despite several restructuring attempts, the most recent of which was undermined by the Wall Street crisis, lack of credit, unemployment and low consumer confidence.

GM is asking for $18 billion in financing, which includes a $12 billion loan and a $6 billion revolving line of credit that would be tapped if the market worsens.

The automaker would make several withdrawals of the cash in coming months. GM needs $4 billion this month to pay its bills and would draw $4 billion more in January.

GM would make a $2 billion withdrawal in February or March for a total of $10 billion. The remaining $2 billion would help ensure GM has enough cash to pay its bills through the end of next year, assuming an annualized sales rate of 12 million units.

The $6 billion line of credit could be tapped if the U.S. auto industry worsens to an annualized rate of 10.5 million units.

The automaker supports working with an oversight board that would ensure GM's restructuring goals are met and that the taxpayers' investment is 'fully protected,' Henderson said. The government would get stock at a certain price and if the value increases; shares could be sold at a profit.

Wagoner and other executives received a vote of confidence from GM's Board of Directors this afternoon.

'The Board believes that the company is fully capable of implementing the comprehensive plan being submitted to Congress and that management will see the company through these most difficult and challenging times,' the directors said in a prepared statement.

GM warned that without government aid it could have just $1 billion in the bank by January and be $1.9 billion in the red by February if auto sales remain depressed.

'Absent such assistance, the company will default in the near term, very likely precipitating a total collapse of the domestic industry and its extensive supply chain, with a ripple effect that will have severe, long-term consequences to the U.S. economy,' GM wrote in its report to Congress.

U.S. Commerce Secretary Carlos Gutierrez said in an interview that the Bush Administration was reviewing the plans submitted by the automakers.

'Everybody wants to see these companies succeed,' said Gutierrez, who has emerged as the administration's point person on autos.

Sen. Carl Levin, D-Detroit, told reporters that a GM collapse would have immediate impact.

'If GM falters, they are all going to falter,' he said, adding the prospects for Congress approving aid next week were uncertain.

He urged both President Bush and President-elect Barack Obama to more publicly prod Congress into quick action.

GM's plan involves the following moves:

• Slashing hourly costs in North America by $3.6 billion in an attempt to make GM competitive with foreign automakers no later than 2012.

The move, which will involve negotiating with the United Auto Workers to change wages and GM's obligations to a UAW-run health-care trust fund, includes eliminating up to 30,000 hourly and salaried workers.

GM currently has 96,000 workers and the goal is to have 65,000 to 75,000 workers by 2012.

GM wants to replace hourly workers with lower-paid workers. GM negotiated a two-tier wage system with the UAW last year that pays new hires $15 an hour (instead of $28) with no pensions and dramatic cuts to their health care coverage.

The contract also created a UAW-run trust fund -- known as the Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association, or VEBA -- to relieve automakers of their nonsalaried health care costs. GM will contribute about $34 billion, which would cut its health care costs by $3 billion a year, beginning in 2010.

Henderson did not provide specific concessions it may seek from the UAW.

'I would prefer not to get into details,' he said. 'We need to deal with things like levels of manpower and jobs security.'

One possible area is the controversial jobs bank that pays workers even when they are laid off.

The number of workers in the program has been thinned under tougher time restrictions in the 2007 contract but the benefit is derided as a relic of a bygone age that erodes the automakers' ability to compete and something they can no longer afford. UAW President Ron Gettelfinger recently said GM has removed about 47,000 workers in recent years.

In July, GM announced it had won permission from the UAW to delay $1.7 billion in VEBA payments owed this year and 2009. GM will make the payments in 2010, when the UAW assumes responsibility for the fund. GM will pay the $1.7 billion, plus accrued interest of 9 percent adding to the $5.3 billion already scheduled for 2010.

GM also said it must get new concessions from hourly workers.

'GM has made mistakes in the past -- in now-untenable provisions from prior collective bargaining agreements, and insufficient investment in smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles for the U.S,' the plan said. 'Even so, GM still supplies one in five vehicles sold in the U.S. today. In fact, 66 million GM cars and trucks are on this country's roads today, 44 million more than Toyota.'

By 2012, GM proposes slashing its structural costs to $23.2 billion, about a $7 billion reduction.

GM's plan involves closing nine plants by 2012, which would leave the automaker with 38 plants in North America.

• Reducing or eliminating four of its eight brands and cutting the number of dealers.

The plan involves exploring the sale of Saab, talking to dealers about the future of Saturn and shrinking the Pontiac brand to more of a niche offering.

'Pontiac will be more of a high-value performance brand, like Corvette to Chevrolet,' said Mark LaNeve, GM's North American vice president of sales.

GM established the Pontiac division in 1926 and Saturn in 1985.

Henderson would not speculate about what might happen to the Saturn brand, sales of which are down 20.9 percent this year.

'We need to do something...because it's not been successful,' he said.

GM previously said it was trying to sell the Hummer brand.

The moves would let GM focus on four core brands: Chevrolet, Cadillac, Buick and GMC, which account for 83 percent of the company's sales.

The moves also would leave GM with 40 different models in 2012, eight fewer than it has currently. That compares to 63 models five years ago.

GM's eight U.S. brands are the most among the domestic automakers, compared with four at Ford Motor Co. and three at Chrysler LLC. GM agreed to eliminate the 103-year-old Oldsmobile brand in 2000 because of declining sales.

GM has 1,071 outlets for Pontiac, 400 for Saturn and about 105 for Saab. GM has been trying to combine Cadillac/Hummer/Saab and Pontiac/Buick/GMC brands into consolidated dealerships that would benefit from greater sales and lower marketing costs.

By 2012, GM wants to eliminate 1,750 dealerships, particularly in metro and suburban areas. There are 6,450 dealers currently.

• Cutting executive compensation and eliminating its corporate aircraft fleet.

CEO Rick Wagoner will take a $1 salary next year, and the top four senior executives will see their cash compensation slashed by about 50 percent next year. Neither Wagoner nor top executives will receive bonuses this year or in 2009.

Wagoner already has seen his compensation cut in recent years and has not gotten a bonus in three of the last four years.

Wagoner had a $1.65 million salary in 2007 and has a $2.2 million salary this year. He took a 50 percent cut in pay in 2006, and his total compensation has been reduced sharply since he took the helm of GM in 2000.

Henderson, who was paid $1.9 million last year, will take a 30 percent cut in salary while three others --Vice Chairman Bob Lutz, Chief Financial Officer Ray Young and Tom Stephens, executive vice president of GM powertrain and global quality --will take 20 percent cuts.

And GM's Board of Directors will reduce their annual retainer to $1 next year.

GM announced it is closing its aircraft operations at Detroit Metropolitan Airport and getting rid of its airplanes --a thorny issue that drew scorn from lawmakers last month when Wagoner and CEOs from Ford Motor Co. and Chrysler LLC flew to Capitol Hill on corporate jets while asking for federal aid.

'Due to significant cutbacks over the past months, GM travel volume no longer justifies a dedicated corporate aircraft operation,' the company said in a statement.

GM has given back two of its seven leased corporate jets, and is turning in two more -- and has sharply cut back on corporate travel.

The automaker is exploring options to transfer the remaining aircraft to another operator.

Instead of flying on corporate jets, GM executives and others will fly commercial or occasionally charter planes, Henderson said.

• Complying with the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, which was designed to improve fuel efficiency and cut dependence on foreign oil. GM outlined its current lineup of cars and crossover vehicles and plans to shift its portfolio towards producing even more of the fuel-efficient vehicles. For 2009, GM has 18 models in the U.S. that gets 30 mpg on the highway and that push towards more fuel-efficient vehicles will continue, Henderson said.