It's off to bankruptcy court for Government Motors

The bankruptcy, to be filed in New York, is a moment of reckoning for an industry that was once at the heart of the American economy. It culminates a remarkable four months of confrontation between Washington and Detroit that is expected to result in a drastic downsizing of the company.

It also places the government in uncharted territory as a business owner, as it takes a 60 percent ownership stake in the company during its restructuring.

Reflecting the government's extraordinary intervention in industry, aides say, Mr. Obama plans to tell the nation on Monday that he believes G.M. can be brought back from the brink of insolvency, even if the company looks almost nothing like the titan of old.

Meanwhile, a federal judge late Sunday night cleared a path for Chrysler to get out of bankruptcy by approving a sale of most of that carmaker's assets to a new entity to be run by Fiat of Italy.

Administration officials briefed reporters on the G.M. plans Sunday night, as President Obama began to inform members of Congress. But the White House insisted that the aides who talked to reporters could not be named.