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General Motors is looking to behave itself this holiday season in hopes that the U.S. Government will see fit to reward it with $12 billion on loans. In order to win the loans and be considered for the bailout, the company needs to streamline its operations and prove that it can provide a solid operating foundation and compete in the world of automaking again.

Currently, General Motors is studying whether or not to drop a few of its associated brands. Under examination is Saturn, Saab, Pontiac, and Hummer. GM also owns Chevrolet, GMC, Cadillac, and Buick.

The idea to drop some of the brands would be to save money and to reduce overlap, as GM’s market saturation may in fact be hampering overall top profits. By limiting the company and streamlining some of the associated brands, or at the very least the brands that aren’t particularly popular, GM can limit its market presence in tough times and can release vehicles under its more established product lines.

GM Chief Executive Officer Rick Wagoner is under a deadline set by House Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid. Congress has scheduled a December 5 hearing on a $25 billion auto industry rescue and may vote the week of December 8.

For more information on the bailout, Chevy cars, or what General Motors will try to do next to earn the Senate-led rescue, stay tuned.

When General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner told a throng that there was no guarantee that GM would be using American-made batteries in the brand new Chevrolet Volt, the throng rumbled.

The problem with this arises out of the fact that Detroit automakers recently pressed the government for $25 billion in government loans. With the Volt and the idea that a good portion of it may or may not be spent on the batteries in a domestic capacity, the idea that some or a good portion of the government money set aside to help Detroit automakers could be going to overseas manufacturers flat out doesn’t sit well.

“As we sit here today, I can’t give you a guarantee that it will be made in the U.S.,” Wagoner said regarding the making of the battery for the vehicle. “If we want to get the Volt in the market, as we do by the end of 2010, we’ve got to make some relatively near-term decisions about how we are going to do all that.”

Wagoner’s comment came before he, Alan Mulally, the chief executive officer of Ford, and Chrysler CEO Robert Nardelli lobbied Congress for a loans package that would help aid their industry in America. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nevada, said top lawmakers had agreed to attach the loan package to a continuing resolution end-of-the-year budget appropriation.

Whether or not the Volt will be 100% American remains to be seen, but at the moment is appears that it and other Chevy cars are more in a rush to get out on the lot than they are to use the American loan from the government in any domestic capacity. We’ll stay on this story as more develops in the coming days.