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Obama Pushes False GM Success Story
IBD Editorials ^ | April 30, 2012

Posted on 04/30/2012 4:49:59 PM PDT by Kaslin

Politics: The Obama camp can't stop clucking about how he saved GM and the car industry. But if the GM bailout is such a success story, why can't it pay back its debt to taxpayers?

The president's new campaign video narrated by actor Tom Hanks claims GM has "repaid" its loans. But in a revelation by the special inspector general monitoring the TARP bailout program, GM and GMAC together still owe the biggest share of the remaining $119 billion TARP debt.

Of the top bailout recipients, GM is the biggest laggard, the TARP watchdog says in his latest quarterly report to Congress. Bank of America, Citigroup, Chrysler and Chrysler Financial all have paid off their debt and left the TARP program. Even AIG has paid back more than 75% of what it owes taxpayers.

GM, on the other hand, still owes more than half the $50 billion in federal funds it received when the combination of the recession and its costly union contracts drove it into bankruptcy. And its lending arm, GMAC (now Ally Financial), still owes $14.5 billion.

What's worse, it's not clear that GM actually repaid what it's gotten credit for repaying. Check out this note buried in the inspector's report: "As part of a credit agreement with Treasury, $16.4 billion in TARP funds were placed in an escrow account that GM could access only with Treasury's permission."

As it turns out, GM got Treasury's OK to "repay" more than $6.7 billion "using a portion of the escrow account that had been funded with TARP funds." So GM is merely paying the government back with government money, not money GM is earning selling cars, as the administration has claimed.

(Excerpt) Read more at news.investors.com ...


TOPICS: Business/Economy; Editorial; Politics/Elections
KEYWORDS:

1 posted on 04/30/2012 4:50:06 PM PDT by Kaslin
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To: Kaslin
GM could have survived a normal chapter 11, and "saved by Obama" Chrysler is now a Fiat owned nameplate with many of it's top cars built in Canada and Mexico. The bailouts didn't rescue either automaker or save American jobs. They just paid off the UAW at the expense of the bondholders.

I was a satisfied GM owner in the past, but I never want to see the inside of any of the "New GM's" dealers.

2 posted on 04/30/2012 4:57:55 PM PDT by TwelveOfTwenty (With choices like Palin, Cain, and Bachmann, what could go wrong? Now we know.)
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To: Kaslin

They don’t pay taxes.

Easy to be successful with a 30% bump .


3 posted on 04/30/2012 5:00:32 PM PDT by Pasadena2k
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To: Kaslin

I’ll never watch another Tom Hanks movie. His nose is permanently planted in Zero’s anus.


4 posted on 04/30/2012 5:01:24 PM PDT by beethovenfan (If Islam is the solution, the "problem" must be freedom.)
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To: Kaslin

The braying peacock isn’t saying much about the billions of dollars in equity he stole from stockholders, bond holders, and other secured financial interests.

Then he bypassed bankruptcy law so he could hand over the stolen equity to the UAW labor union.

And there won’t be one republican with the backbone to challenge him on this outright theft and illegal transfer of equity.


5 posted on 04/30/2012 5:03:09 PM PDT by Iron Munro (If Repub's paid as much attention to Rush Limbaugh as the Dem's do, we wouldn't be in this mess)
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To: Iron Munro

Where is the money that is actually being paid back dissappearing to?


6 posted on 04/30/2012 5:08:01 PM PDT by Venturer
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To: Kaslin

If I recall correctly, the Taxpayers own a large chunk of GM stock with a break even somewhere in the $50-60.00 range. I’m sure we will do OK on that investment


7 posted on 04/30/2012 5:09:06 PM PDT by woodenickel
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To: Kaslin

If I recall correctly, the Taxpayers own a large chunk of GM stock with a break even somewhere in the $50-60.00 range. I’m sure we will do OK on that investment


8 posted on 04/30/2012 5:13:28 PM PDT by woodenickel
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To: Iron Munro

Stole from ME!!


9 posted on 04/30/2012 5:23:16 PM PDT by bert ((K.E. N.P. N.C. +12 ..... Present failure and impending death yield irrational action))
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To: woodenickel

But of course! At this rate we will do swimmingly...as in under water.

General Motors Company (GM)
-NYSE

23.00 Down 0.53(2.25%) 4:02PM EDT|After Hours: 22.98 Down 0.02 (0.07%) 5:37PM EDT


10 posted on 04/30/2012 5:30:53 PM PDT by RipSawyer
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To: beethovenfan

I’m with you, as it stands now I can’t bear the sound of his voice any longer - and I actually ‘liked’ Hanks back in the day -


11 posted on 04/30/2012 5:44:48 PM PDT by AllAmericanGirl44 (Fluck this adminstration of misfits.)
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To: Kaslin

obama worshippers believe everything they’re told about obama IF it is favorable to him. I have relatives who post on FB that GM repaid the loans so that makes obama a great president. When you point out to them that they borrowed money to pay money they refuse to believe it.


12 posted on 04/30/2012 5:50:11 PM PDT by Terry Mross ("It happened. And we let it happen." Peter Griffin - FAMILY GUY)
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To: Kaslin

Tom Hanks:

Can you afford to keep this ad going with all of the lies?

Somne of this will backfire on you, IMO.


13 posted on 04/30/2012 6:02:16 PM PDT by ridesthemiles
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