The US Government used bailout money to help General Motors and other auto companies. The stated goal was to rescue companies that are too big to fail but the reality is that the government used the money to pay off union backers while screwing over investors. We were told that a profit would be turned and that we should not worry because they are the government and they are there to help.

Looks like the estimate of making money is turning out to be a lie told to us by politicians hell bent on robbing us blind. It is not a lie to those of us who said it would not happen and to those of us who realized the lies the auto companies told when they said they paid back the money. They took stimulus money to pay back the loans…

The estimated losses in the auto bailout have risen to 23.6 BILLION dollars, 9 BILLION more than the last estimate because GM stock is not doing well.

The government has expressed its position in this way:

In its monthly report to Congress, the Treasury Department now says it expects to lose $23.6 billion, up from its previous estimate of $14.33 billion. Detroit News

Herein lies the problem. The Treasury is not going to lose any money. Let me express the sentence so it has the truth; In its monthly report to Congress, the Treasury Department now says it expects TAXPAYERS to lose $23.6 billion, up from its previous estimate of $14.33 billion.

Government seems to forget whose money this is. The money that was spent to bailout the unions and the union workers came from taxpayers. All money that government spends comes from some other entity (most of it through taxes) which means the Treasury (as is true with all government agencies) cannot lose money. All it can do is lose money that belongs to the taxpayer.

I did not agree with the Wall Street bailouts but at least those folks paid the money back (some after being FORCED to take the money in the first place). If those Occupy morons want to protest they should be marching at GM and at the union shops.

Of course they should also be protesting in DC.

We have to call these people on this kind of stuff. This has been going on for far too long in that the government acts as if it spends and loses its own money when it is in fact spending, wasting, and losing OUR money.

Cave canem!
Never surrender, never submit.

General Motors received a lot of money from the US taxpayer under both George Bush and Barack Obama. Despite Obama’s claims (and his fuzzy math) about car companies paying back the money, they still owe the taxpayer billions of dollars that we will likely never see. GM CEO Dan Akerson said he was grateful that the government rescued GM but wants the government out of the company in the next 6 to 12 months. Newsflash for Mr. Akerson, the government did not rescue your company, the taxpayer did through coercive tax policies that allow the government, under threat of force, to extract money from people who earn it and spend it on companies like yours. Companies that are poorly managed and spend unwisely. The taxpayer was forced to rescue your company because it was mismanaged and we had no say in the matter.

How does Mr. Akerson want to repay the taxpayer who rescued his company? He is in favor of raising the federal gas tax by as much as a dollar a gallon in order to compel people to buy more fuel efficient cars. GM just happens to make a few models of fuel efficient cars so his company will benefit from the tax increase (at least that is what he wants). What we have here is a company that was bailed out by people who are having trouble making ends meet wanting to screw those very people.

No good deed (if anyone would call bailing out a company a good deed) goes unpunished.

How are people who are having trouble making ends meet supposed to buy a new car? How will forcing them to pay more for fuel make their lives any easier when they can’t afford a new, fuel efficient car but will be forced to pay the higher fuel tax for the fuel consumed by their older cars? This takes into consideration that people still have cars in the first place. Most who still have them are probably still paying for them so they will be severely underwater if they trade in for a fuel efficient car. Those cars can run about 40,000 dollars. Those who have paid off their cars will likely pay the fuel tax rather than go into debt to save at the pump.

And what about people who have no use for the little boxes of fuel efficiency? What about those who must have SUVs and pick-up trucks? Some of us must report to work no matter what so my Jeep is a better option than a car that will not make it in the snow. When that little car can get me to work in the snow and haul 800 pounds of stuff then I will consider it. The people who must have the larger vehicles will end up paying more at the pump.

This is a fine thank you to the American taxpayer for rescuing GM. Mr. Akerson.

How about the next time you need money we just say no?

Better yet, how about we decide not to buy GM vehicles?

Cave Canem!
Never surrender, never submit.

After George “we have to abandon capitalism to save it” Bush started lending money to companies like GM, Barack Obama took control and doubled down. He bailed out General Motors and his pals in the unions at the expense of the investors who should have been compensated first. When Obama, with his vast experience in economics, discussed the GM bailout he assured us that it was a good investment and that we would end up making money on the deal.

“American taxpayers are now positioned to recover more than my Administration invested in GM.” — President Obama, November 18, 2010.

“I think the government’s investment is well placed and I think they’ll make a lot of money.” — then Obama appointee GM C.E.O. Ed Whitacre, January 11, 2010. Pajamas Media (which links to the source articles)

It looks like that is not quite right as the same Obama who told us we would profit is now telling us that we will lose 14 BILLION dollars. That means, ladies and gentlemen, that the 50% of us who pay taxes will lose 14 BILLION dollars because Obama invested our money unwisely.

Let us break this down. Obama (following Bush) told us that GM needed to be bailed out and then he used our money to bail them out. He then told us it was a good deal and we would see a profit on our money. Now he is telling us that we will lose 14 BILLION dollars.

So somebody tell me why Bernie Madoff is in jail and Obama is not?

Will those of us who pay taxes be allowed to write off this bad investment? Can we reduce our tax burden by 20% (the percentage of our money that the government lost)?

How can anyone claim that this program was a success when it cost us 14 BILLION dollars?

How come GM is not forced to keep paying us from its profits until the debt (plus interest) is paid? How dare the Democrats cry about oil companies getting over on us when GM is bending us over big time?

GM and Chrysler should have been allowed to fail. Ford made it and is in a stronger position.

I, along with many others, will never buy a GM or Chrysler product again (which is a shame because I love my Jeep).

Perhaps this is why Obama and his toadies want to win the individual mandate case in Obamacare. If the courts rule they can force us to buy a product will it be very long before they force us to buy GM products?

Good luck with that. You will need it.

Cave Canem!
Never surrender, never submit.

Thanks to US taxpayers General Motors became Government Motors as taxpayer money was used to bailout the failing auto company. It should have been allowed to fail but Barack Obama had to bail out the company in order to save his union supporters and his puppet master at union headquarters.

Barack Obama took OUR money and without our permission used it to help a failing auto company by allowing the government to become a part owner in the enterprise. This all happened as private investors were screwed over in favor of union thugs. We were told that there would be a profit for us out of this (as if those of us paying the bills would actually see any of it) but there was no profit and the government is selling its shares in the company at a loss. GM did not pay the money back as any money paid back came from stimulus money. In other words, GM took the name Government Motors seriously and paid its debt to us with money it borrowed from us.

Given all this, one would think that GM would be beholden to the US taxpayers. One would think that since our money was confiscated from us and used to keep that company from failing that we would be rewarded, not individually but as a collective. In other words, one would think that since the country did something good for GM that GM would do something good for the country.

One would be wrong for thinking that because GM has decided to spend 540 million dollars (no doubt taxpayer money) to produce two low emission motors in Mexico. The project will create (directly and indirectly) about 1000 jobs. Since 2006 GM has invested about 5 BILLION dollars in Mexico.

I would think that GM would produce the motors in the US. In fact I would require them to. As the NLRB tells Boeing where it can use ITS OWN MONEY to build planes, the government is silent about a company partly owned by taxpayers fleeing to Mexico to build its product. It is not bad enough that GM is screwing the people who saved its sorry butt but the company has been investing in Mexico, at the expense of jobs here, since 2006.

So tell me, why didn’t GM go to the Mexican government when it needed to be bailed out?

And why is the Obama regime not stopping our employees (yes people at GM, we own you and you work for us now) from going out of the country.

I think Detroit could use a new plant and the workers that come with it. I would imagine that the 5 BILLION spent in Mexico could have helped Detroit quite a bit.

Then again, Detroit is run by liberals and GM is a union company. Either is bad but combined they are a recipe for disaster and failure which is why GM needed to be bailed out and Detroit is a wasteland.

GM went from General Motors to Government Motors and now it is just Gone Mexican.

So folks, how do you feel about being taken advantage of like this?

I said it before and I will iterate it here. I will never buy a GM vehicle (and yes, I have owned GM in the past).

Heh, when Barack Obama gave us his simplistic approach to the jobs problem by telling businesses that they needed to hire I guess he forgot to tell his toadies that they needed to hire INSIDE the country…

Perhaps we should rename GM to BOHICA Motors.

Bend Over, Here It Comes Again…

And maybe their next car should be the Chevy Bolt since they bolted across the border…

Cave Canem!
Never surrender, never submit.

Barack Obama and his government own General Motors (or as GM now means, Government Motors). It must be nice to work for Obama:

After resigning as president and CEO of General Motors in December, Fritz Henderson might have gone into hiding or decided to sit out the harsh Michigan winter on a Florida beach.

Instead, here he is popping up again, this time as a consultant to GM on international operations at the very fancy fee of $59,090 a month for 20 hours of work a month. That works out to almost $3,000 an hour for a CEO who was ousted after just eight months on the job. Money.CNN

3000 dollars an hour is good work if you can get it. And where can I get a job where I get that kind of money and only have to work for 20 hours a month.

Yep, the government took over GM. Does anyone actually think it will make money? Not when it does stuff like this.

But the government is doing a good job bashing Toyota in order to help out GM. Talk about a conflict of interest…

So can anyone tell me how it is that Obama and his radical minions are able to tell banks and financial institutions that received bailout money what their executive compensation can be but can’t do that for GM? Government Motors (formerly General Motors) received lots of taxpayer money and failed to pay it back but now its executives are getting big money.

General Motors Co. CEO Ed Whitacre will receive a salary of $1.7 million this year, plus stock awards that will bring his total pay package to $9 million at a later date, the automaker said Friday.

In a surprise announcement, GM also said former CEO Fritz Henderson has been rehired as a consultant. Henderson, who was forced out of the job in December, will work 20 hours a month and will be paid $59,090 a month, the company said. Yahoo

Obama and his buddies at ACORN can rail against executive pay and Barney Frank, the Banking Queen, can scream about limiting pay for executives of ALL companies but they seem to be silent over the huge CEO compensation at GM.

How can it be that Obama will scold CEOs for how much they make and tell us that those who ran the company into the ground should not be paid well (as if it is his decision to make) but his car company can spend money on huge executive compensation? How can that be?

Private companies in America need to tell Obama and Frank and the rest of the radicals in DC to mind their own damn business and to stay out of the private sector. The easiest way to do that is to stop ALL donations to politicians. After that a simple letter telling Congress and Obama to shut the hell up and mind their own business should suffice.

Government does not belong in private industry and if the pols in DC don’t like it then that is just too bad.

They keep screwing around and there are plenty of countries that are much less expensive to do business in.

How would members of Congress like to explain why a bunch of jobs in their districts and states went away because of government meddling?

No matter what, these people at GM do not deserve any of this money until the taxpayer is completely repaid. We own that company and we should get paid first. Of course, the rules are a little different for Obama and his supporters (like the UAW).

So let us do ourselves a favor and ignore GM. Don’t buy any of their vehicles and let’s put them out of business. They should have failed some time ago and we propped them up as Obama took them over. Now his CEO is getting big money.

Bankrupt them once and for all so they can go under and something else can take over.

Ford Motor Company was the only US big three auto maker to trun down the government’s offer of a bailout. The company was in financial trouble just as Chrysler and GM were but decided against taking taxpayer money.

GM and Chrysler took the money and their companies became government property with labor unions owning part of them. Neither has shown a profit and they both continue to bleed money. It is hard to see how they will survive and how taxpayers will ever get their money back (well, the banks will have to pay for it with a fee).

Ford showed a profit of $2.7 billion, its first annual profit in four years.

The company took action in the tough market and worked on a business plan that allowed it to make money, on its own and without politicians, (few of whom have business experience) running the show.

This is what happens when the free market is allowed to work. Ford would have failed on its own or succeeded on its own and that is how it should be. No business is too big to fail.

I don’t think that Congress will catch on and neither will the progressives because they do not care about success, they care about control.

I love my Jeep but will not buy another. I will not buy a vehicle from a company that took my tax dollars and I really don’t care if they go belly up. I will buy from a company that was responsible and did not take tax dollars.

Looking at the financial status of the big three, it looks like I am not the only one who feels that way.

Ford makes some nice SUVs…

Yea, I know, another interminable piece on the Auto Industry, but this has wider implications than just your ride to work, or even what you drive. The bedrock of our legal system, at least when it comes to doing business in this country, as well as many other countries, is Contract Law.

A contract is an exchange of promises between two or more parties to do, or refrain from doing, an act, which resulting contract is enforceable in a court of law. It is a binding legal agreement. ^[1] That is to say, a contract is an exchange of promises for the breach of which the law will provide a remedy.

Agreement is said to be reached when an offer capable of immediate acceptance is met with a “mirror image” acceptance (ie, an unqualified acceptance). The parties must have the necessary capacity to contract and the contract must not be either trifling, indeterminate, impossible or illegal. Contract law is based on the principle expressed in the Latin phrasepacta sunt servanda (usually translated “pacts must be kept”, but more literally “agreements are to be kept”).^[2] Breach of contract is recognized by the law and remedies can be provided.

Technically, any oral agreement between two parties can constitute a binding legal contract. The practical limitation to this, however, is that only parties to a written agreement have material evidence (the written contract itself) to prove the actual terms uttered at the time the agreement was struck. In daily life, most contracts can be and are made orally, such as purchasing a book or a sandwich. Sometimes written contracts are required by either the parties, or by statutory law within various jurisdiction for certain types of agreement. For example when buying a house^[3] or land.

en.wikipedia.org

In plain language, the written contract trumps all else- unless kyou are the United States government intent on rewarding friends of those in power. In that case, contract law becomes null and void- or what ever the king says it is. 

In this case, the King and his diminutive jester, little Timmy Geithner, have declared that the unions, who supported the Chicago gangster in his bid to steal our country, have to be repaid, and now they have received not one, but two shiny car companies to play with, while the people who invested in GM and Chrysler have to stand in the back of the line, hat in hand.

I know that Barama and his party love class warfare- without it they wouldn’t have been elected- however, the facts are that these “big, greedy, Bond- holders” that the liberals love to demonize are holders of the same bonds that school teachers, pipefitters, and other, more mainstream workers have in their portfolios for their retirements, and now they are darn near worthless, all because Barama put the unions at  the head of the line.

And it’s not just that, although the breaking of contracts is as serious as a heart attack, legally- all of this could have been done six months ago, without all of our money going into a pit of no return- the sheer idiocy is shocking.

GM’s bondholders had a 5 p.m. Saturday deadline to accept an offer to swap their $27 billion in debt for at least a 10 percent stake in a new GM. If the Treasury doesn’t get the support it wants, bondholders could wind up with far less in bankruptcy court.

The Treasury Department had no immediate comment on the deadline passing, and GM spokesman Tom Wilkinson said the automaker did not plan to make any statements Saturday.

GM took a huge restructuring step Friday when the United Auto Workers union agreed to a cost-cutting deal, and early Saturday, Germany’s finance minister said a plan was approved for Canadian auto parts maker Magna International Inc. to move ahead with a rescue of GM’s Opel unit.

But there was still much to do to beat the government’s Monday deadline to qualify for more aid. The company already has received about $20 billion in government loans and could get $30 billion more to make it through what is expected to be a 60- to 90-day reorganization in bankruptcy court.

But there was still much to do to beat the government’s Monday deadline to qualify for more aid. The company already has received about $20 billion in government loans and could get $30 billion more to make it through what is expected to be a 60- to 90-day reorganization in bankruptcy court.

Houston Chronicle, Sunday  May 31, 2009

Over 50 billion dollars, and that is just GM that they are talking about. If we had had the bankruptcy in November, we could have saved this money, and the unions would have gotten what they deserved under the law- far less in the immediate future, but a possible future, at least. This way, they have a shiny toy they have no idea how to operate efficiently, nor will they have the time to learn on the go, because I am certainly reluctant to buy something that would be designed by the government, and bossed by the unions.

Unions are good at putting nuts on bolts (and even then they have robots to show them how and help. What unions are not good at is management- they are vastly unsuited to the task, as unions and management have been natural adversaries for as long as there have been unions. Oh what will they do when someone has that inevitable grievance- who will they demonize? The we did it to ourself scenario doesn’t play well with liberals who like to always deflect responsibility and blame- but with the unions in charge the buck’s gotta stop somewhere. Perhaps they’ll play a version of spin the bottle to see who to blame.

Meanwhile, the poor bondholders have to do as the government tells them to do- they have no options, unless they want to run into a buzz saw of governmental red tape that would make their life hell for the next five years or so. Wow, what a deal- this is certainly a day to remember, when your own government screws you out of the money  you are legally obligated to by law, but are denied because of crass, lowly, political favoritism dished out by a group of mafia wannabes in governmental guise. 

They’ll make you an offer you can’t refuse.

My goodness, there was only one thing that Barama HAD to get right in his first one hundred days, and that was the housing crisis, and he hasn’t even come CLOSE to making a dent in the bad news. One has to wonder if they even know how, or perhaps they are too busy naming “czars” to realize that the rest of the country, who don’t have cushy jobs with free housing, free food, free limos, are losing first their jobs, and then their houses.

About 5.4 million of the country’s 45 million home loans were delinquent or in some stage of the foreclosure process in the first three months of the year, according to the Mortgage Bankers Association. About 12.07 percent of all mortgages were delinquent or in foreclosure, up from 11.93 percent at the end of 2008.

Suspensions on foreclosures imposed by lenders and underwriters have mostly ended, and banks are moving quickly against homeowners who fall behind.

Housing specialists said the number of foreclosures would probably keep rising as more people lose jobs or are forced to trade full-time work for part time. Nearly six million jobs have been lost since the recession began a year and a half ago, and many economists expect unemployment to rise to 10 percent by next year, from 8.9 percent now.

More and more people are losing their homes simply because Barama has done nothing, except throw money away- the Chinese are appalled at the profligate behavior, specifically because they own most of our debt, and they do not want to  lose  their money. Money is serious business to them, and Barama’s mishandling of or nation’s finances horrifies them.

It’s not making us feel real good either. Five months into his reign- er , term, the situation has gone from bad to worse, as the Auto companies GM and Chrysler have gone bankrupt, AFTER receiving billions of dollars that are just GONE- we will never be able to recoup this money. We could have put these companies through the bankruptcies without all of that money disappearing. Now, even after giving control of these companies to the unions in a remarkable display of sheer idiocy- after all, unions are great at putting huts on bolts, but balance sheets are altogether different- these unions will survive, from the top down. Do any of you union people who will lose your jobs (and there’s an estimated 20,000 of you), truly think that any of the union bosses will lose THEIRS? Not in Barama’s world.

The wave of employment-driven foreclosures could pose new challenges for the Obama administration as it tries to stabilize falling housing values. In March, the administration outlined a multifaceted program that aims to help as many as nine million homeowners refinances mortgages and stay in their houses.

A group of economists at the Boston Federal Reserve said in a recent paper that foreclosure prevention programs could be more effective if they gave direct aid to struggling homeowners, rather than modified loans to reduce monthly payments.

The figures released Thursdaysuggested that prime fixed-rate loans were supplanting risky subprime loans and rising adjustable-rate mortgages as the force behind the foreclosure crisis.

Barama has been so concerned with doing as much as he can in a short time that he has done nothing effectively- it is possible to dilute any effectiveness by spreading it too thin, and that is what has been happening. Now, no one is satisfied, noone is better off, with the possible exception of union leaders and all the “czars”, with their fancy new titles, and do nothing jobs. So much tried to so LITTLE effect- an award for total incompetence should be called an “Obama”, but in this case, the entire administration can share in the shame of so utterly failing the American People.

Liberals love to point out that it was Bush who began this with the 350 billion that he spread out as the TARP funds, but that is now chump change, and this folly is fully Barama’s to own and enjoy. Boy oh boy, is he enjoying our discomfort now- he surely must, because he just keeps on piling on, using the mantra “Too Big To Fail”. Perhaps he can borrow Bush’s “Mission Accomplished” when he finally bankrupts this nation as seems to be his agenda.

They say when you find yourself in a hole, quit digging, but Barama just gets a bigger shovel- perhaps he’s digging his way to China.

That way it will be easier to go kowtow to them when asking for more money- after all we all know Barama must be “Too big to fail”- even if, in the end, nothing else is.

Just Like I said they would

I wrote before that the bailout of the major auto makers was only going to delay the inevitable and that they would eventually file for bankruptcy. I also wrote that when they filed for bankruptcy the bailout money they received would be lost forever because they would not have to pay it back. This was one of my arguments against bailing out any of them. It would appear as if I was right on the money.

GM is filing for bankruptcy and it hopes to sell off part of the company to a company that was owned, for a brief time, by the government. The plan will call for GM to give stakes in the new company to the union and the bondholders.

When a company files for bankruptcy it is supposed to reorganize and figure a way to restructure debt in order to pay creditors. Some of GM’s assets will stay in bankruptcy in order to satisfy any outstanding claims, except those of the US taxpayer. GM will not have to pay back most of the 15.4 BILLION dollars in loans it received from taxpayers because the government will forgive the loans. The US government is awfully generous with OUR money.

In addition, the government would extend a credit line to the new company and forgive the bulk of the $15.4 billion in emergency loans that the U.S. has already provided to GM, the source said. al-Reuters

In addition to forgiving the loans the government will extend a line of credit to GM. How nice, we will let them spend more of our money on credit. How long will it be before that is forgiven as well?

The government is supposed to be good stewards with our money. The taxpayer was forced to hand money over to GM and we should be protected. Those in private industry who invested in GM should take a hit before taxpayers because they had a choice and invested in order to make money. Their gamble did not pay off.

The government had no right to spend OUR money on a private company to begin with. They did so under the guise of it being a loan that would be repaid. Now the government is kissing that money goodbye. We have no chance now of ever getting it back, just as I stated. The Socialist government gave the unions and bondholders a 15.4 BILLION dollar gift because they get part of the company but will not be saddled with the debt the company incurred.

This should disgust everyone. I would like to see all incumbents voted out of office but at the very least every person who voted for the bailouts should be sent packing. People, this is 15.4 BILLION dollars of your money that the government decided to “forgive.” Do you suppose they will forgive your tax bill when it comes due?

As for GM, I will NEVER buy a GM product. I had stated before that I would not buy from a company that received bailout money and I will never buy from one that is owned by the union. I will certainly not buy from any company that raped the US taxpayer. Boycott GM and put them out of business.

Ford did not take bailout money. It pains me that Chrysler did because I own a Jeep and had planned on buying another in a few years (assuming you can still get them after the CAFE and global warming stupidity is added on) but now I will need to find another SUV.

Maybe someone will buy Jeep from Chrysler…