GM CEO Rick Wagoner is out after being the head of General Motors for the past 8 years. The surprise here is not that Wagoner is out, but who had a helping hand in making it for him.

According to an Obama administration official, President Obama asked Wagoner to step down, and he agreed.

At this time, no replacement has been named, though sources say it could be the current COO, Fritz Henderson. That is unless the administration pushes to fire someone else from the outside.

This move also comes on the heels of a scheduled news conference tomorrow by President Obama on future plans for GM and Chrysler.

Currently, GM has received $13.4 billion in government bailout loans and has been seeking another $16.6 billion.

Personally, I don’t know why this has taken as long as it has. Wagoner, and Chrysler CEO Bob Nardelli, have both needed to go. But this still doesn’t solve the bigger issue, and that is how much more taxpayer money we are going to continue to hand out. According to many financial analysts and economists, the automakers could eventually need upwards of $150 billion more just to survive the next 2 years.