If it's any consolation, AMR uses the same argument for refusing to offer early out to senior AA flight attendants. "We don't have the money." Of course, after fully funding the special executives' retirement plan (SERP) for hundreds of millions of dollars, I'm not surprised.
It seems to me though that their money sources would be more than happy to assist the company by fronting the money for an early out program. For instance, Top of scale (15-years) at AA now is about $44/hr. I was making $22.10/hr when I was furloughed (not the bottom of scale, but you can see it from where I was). If you gave a top-of-scaler $25,000 cash to retire, plus their standard retirement benefits, it would take the company only 16 months to recoup the $25,000 by recalling me. I calculated this on the savings attributed to a minimum 70-hr month.
And, that's just savings on flight pay.