GM, Taxpayers, Layoffs and Bailouts
We have been hearing and reading quite a bit of news lately concerning General Motors planned layoffs of white and blue collar jobs, as well as the closing of several of their manufacturing plants.
It appears that GM’s problems in some part arose from the fact that they attempted to please politicians during the last administration and produce cars that close to nobody wanted or could afford. Partly because of that they are in a bind and are now making what appears to be the appropriate steps to put their company on a more stable financial footing.
They are however getting grilled by politicians and the news media concerning these layoffs and plant closures due to the fact they were bailed out during the Obama Administration. Their customers were given very nice tax breaks to buy their electric cars, somewhere in the $8,000 range and the recent tax breaks under the Trump Administration.
Yesterday the CEO of General Motors Mary Barra was asked by a news reporter about the fact that her company was bailed out but then made the statement that they repaid it. Well I am hear to say that if you consider the Obama Administration allowing GM to swap their billions of dollars of taxpayer debt for GM stock that was worth penny’s on the dollar compared to their debt.
Don’t believe me; then how about the USA Today? Back in April of 2014 the USA Today wrote the following:
Taxpayers lost nearly $1 billion more on the General Motors bailout than the Treasury Department estimated when it sold its last GM shares on Dec. 9, according to a government report released on Wednesday.
The loss now is recorded as $11.2 billion, up from $10.3 billion. A Treasury Department auditor said the government had written off on March 20 an $826-million "administrative claim" tied to the bailout and not included in the initial estimate.
Now you know the truth, what do you believe: did GM payback us taxpayers or not?
A loss of $11.2 billion dollars is quite a big number to digest. Were we sold a lemon by GM?
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