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President Barack Obama said Monday that General Motors Corp.'s (GM) restructuring plan provides it an opportunity to emerge quickly from bankruptcy as a stronger company, but warned that fixing the troubled auto maker will take a "painful toll" on many Americans.

"Working with my auto task force, GM and its stakeholders have produced a viable, achievable plan that will give this iconic American company a chance to rise again," Obama said in remarks at the White House.

"I will not pretend the hard times are over," he added. "Difficult days lie ahead. More jobs will be lost. More plants will close. More dealerships will shut their doors, and so will many parts suppliers."

The government will inject another $30 billion into GM to help it get through the bankruptcy process, an investment that will pump the government's ownership position in the company to 60%. Obama repeated that the government is a "reluctant shareholder" with no interest in running the company's day-to-day operations.

But critics say the government's position as majority shareholder in the post-bankruptcy GM creates a conflict between its duty to help the company return to profitability so that it can repay taxpayers and its goal of creating more fuel-efficient vehicles to lessen the nation's dependence on oil.

House Republican Leader John Boehner, R-Ohio, called the administration's policies "conflicting and counterproductive."

"It's time for the administration to fully explain what the exit strategy is to get the U.S. government out of the board room once and for all," Boehner said.

Obama defended government loans to GM and Chrysler as necessary to stave off a collapse that would have been "devastating" for the U.S. economy.

"Understand we're making these investments not because I want to spend the American people's tax dollars, but because I want to protect them," Obama said.

U.S. Chamber of Commerce President Thomas Donohue said his group is concerned that GM's new owners in Washington could put politics ahead of sound business decisions.

"If members of Congress, along with government officials from the United States to Germany to Canada, are allowed undue influence over management's decisions, then you can write this down: These companies will not return to profitability and their survival will be seriously challenged," Donohue said in a statement.

Obama was speaking hours after GM filed for protection in New York and as Chrysler LLC prepared to emerge from its own bankruptcy. He said GM - larger and more complex than Chrysler - would likely come out of the process "quickly," but not as rapidly as Chrysler.

He hailed Chrysler's emergence from a "quick, surgical" bankruptcy as "dramatically better than what appeared likely when this process began."

In addition to the U.S. government's 60% stake, Canada and Ontario will own a 12% position in GM. The remaining shares will go to the United Auto Workers and bondholders.

Obama said none of GM's stakeholders are receiving special treatment, saying that the United Auto Workers is making "painful sacrifices, on top of all that they've already done."

He said unsecured bondholders, who agreed to swap $27 billion in debt for up to 25% of GM's equity, will recover "substantially more" than they would have without government help or if the company had been liquidated.

"I instructed my auto task force to treat all of GM's stakeholders fairly and to ensure that this restructuring was carried out in a way that was consistent with past precedent. And it was," Obama said.

-By Henry J. Pulizzi, Dow Jones Newswires; 202-862-9256; henry.pulizzi@dowjones.com