Just an FYI for whomever wants to know.
The loan was started by Bush as a quick hit, to save GM and Chrysler from going under. Ford was included in the discussions about a bailout, but wanted nothing to do with the governments ability to control things. The bailout was handled mostly by Obama, of which shortly thereafter, he put it on steroids, claiming more government control than was ever intended. Along the way, came more bailouts, more bailouts, and more bailouts, and insider croniism in the form of
1)bailout for Union pensions
Ford doesn't have this welfare
2)bailout for the Unions insurance plan
Ford doesn't have this welfare
3)No taxes paid by GM
Ford doesn't have this welfare
4)a guarantee of no Union labor negotiations in the near future
Ford doesn't have this luxury
5)stocks of GM and Chrysler were stripped from their original owners, pennys on the dollar, and then sold to Union cronies at a reduced price.
Ford's stockholders were not stolen from, and a hypothetical set of new stockholders weren't given this luxury.
GM and Chrysler have paid back their loan and part of their bailout, but still owe the American taxpayer a monumental amount of money that will, quite frankly, never be paid back. Because of this never ceasing and continual government funding of GM and Chrysler, they are now able to offer
6)extended base warranty
and
7)extra rebates of more dollar value
that Ford cannot offer.
Along the way, our government is able to
8)negotiate with China in building GM and Chrysler products
where Ford doesn't have that insider connection, nor the want of having their image of outsourcing to another country, especially China.
9)Publicly push their green agenda through GM (the Volt)
and
10)give hefty tax incentives to anyone that buys a Volt
continuing the circle of propping up the failure.
It is easily found in news articles that there were three CEO's of GM that wanted to pay off the governments bailout, but were subsequently fired by the controlling entity(our government) from their position because of their outspoken will of wanting to be out from under the control of the government and the image of the crony capitalism from Obama.
As it is, the group that caused the downfall of GM and Chrysler is now the group in control. The Unions are being paid a heavy salary and bonuses, as we the tax payer foot the bill. It's really one of the greatest scams ever, but I doubt most people know the truth, or really even care.
Oh yes, don't forget..
11) GM just recently announced they will not be hiring or giving any raises to blue collar workers. They will be saving all their hand out, tax payer funded, cash flow to fund to political idealoges in the Union, only.
For a greater look into the mess, check out the site below. Here's some tidbits of what they say, and the amount of money still owed by GM. As it is, GM owes close to $100 Billion to the American taxpayer, and the debt is getting larger, not smaller.
Quote:
The United States Treasury owns roughly 500 million shares of common stock in General Motors. (Source: U.S. Treasury) The Treasury would need to sell these shares at roughly $53 per share in order to "break even" on the investment. (Source: WSJ) Using Google Finance API, we multiply the current GM stock price by 500,065,254, and subtract that total from $26,503,458,462 (or, 500,065,254 x $53).
Our calculations estimate the loss taxpayers would suffer if UST sells its GM common stock shares at the current ticker price. We track the common stock price and update our calculations on an ongoing basis, providing an up-to-the-minute snapshot of the money the UST lost in Government Motors.
Quote:
General Motors and Barack Obama misled the American people about the auto bailout. They told us they would manage our money wisely, that it would be a good investment, that we would even make a return on our investment. Instead, we have been stuck with a massive bill.
America's loss on GM's stock market investment ALONE:
$13,636,779,476.58
http://www.bailoutcost.com/
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Originally Posted by badger
