U.S. Government Says It Lost $11.2 Billion On GM Bailout

Fox Business News ^ | 04/30/2014

[jimpick]

You are not taking into account how much was lost because the money was not available to the taxpayer that it was stolen from.

How many people lost their income because they could not pay the taxes and had to shut down. Productive companies, not companies that had to declare bankruptcies like GM.

How many companies that were profitable could not expand because the capital was stolen by the government.

These companies pay taxes just as much as the failed GM did.

[showme_the_Glory]

Well now, at least it was just the governments money........

[ThePatriotsFlag]

Idiots ... the government doesn’t have any money of its own to lose ... that was OUR MONEY!!!!!!

[Timocrat]

What about the $45 Billion in tax breaks for the next 20 years ? I guess that does not count !

Exactly. Tax loss carry-forwards are normally extinguished in a bankruptcy. The new GM was gifted the NOL carry-forwards from the old GM, so Ford and the other legitimate car companies have to compete against a company with an ongoing subsidy from the government.

[MHGinTN]

It’s more like Chicom money ... and they are going to want something for it sooner rather than later, so get ready for the wholesale transfers of resource rich lands to Chicom ownership in the West.

[DannyTN]

"You are not taking into account how much was lost because the money was not available to the taxpayer that it was stolen from."

Well, they didn't increase taxes in order to perform the bailout. And we know they weren't about to decrease taxes either. So we can assume the government got the money from the capital markets in the form of debt.

The scenario you paint of companies having to file bankruptcy because their taxes suddenly went up, didn't happen. Their taxes didn't go up.

And while a debt increase, all other things being equal, would have crowded out private attempts to obtain debt, all things weren't equal. The FED was actively increasing the money supply and lowering interest rates. Thus, I'm not sure any private crowding out would have taken place, either.

The debt does have to be repaid. But my point is that the government has a lot more money than it would have had, had they let GM fail and had to put all those people on government benefits and foregone the income taxes too.

Any market effect from the funds used would be very gradual, as the debt gets repaid. But since GM is contributing enough to pay the debt, I don't see harm to the taxpayers.

The real harm was in the court's overturning existing debtor law and cronyism.

[BipolarBob]

That was my first thought. They will under report on something like this.

[SC_Pete]

But they got another female CEO out of it.

[Tallguy]

I was raised to be a loyal GM-buyer. Not anymore. Neither will I ever purchase another Chrysler product.

This was all about preserving the UAW contract so that it wouldn’t be voided as part of the bankruptcy process. GM Bond-holders were screwed over in the process (have any lawsuits been decided on this yet?).

Next car will be a Ford.

[jimpick]

“””Any market effect from the funds used would be very gradual, as the debt gets repaid. But since GM is contributing enough to pay the debt, I don't see harm to the taxpayers.”””

So if the money was spent by a real tax payer this would still be a wash? I think not. Just because GM is paying back the debt does not mean we the tax payers are not losing the taxes that would have been paid by the taxpayer the money was stolen from. In essence we could just not charge the taxes to the tax payer the money was stolen from in the first place.

I don't know where you live but the taxes here in the USA have gone up since this happened. Just because there is no direct connection to GM does not mean it did not affect taxes.

As for companies going out of business because of this immediately I may have mislead you on that. It will make companies close in the future for sure. It is the opportunity tax as it might be said that is affected by this. I know for a fact that I refuse to earn any more than I have to because it is just wasted by the government on crap like the GM bailout.

If the government would have let GM go to bankruptcy I am sure they would have been buyers lined up for miles to purchase the assets.

You are right that the bond holders were totally screwed by Odumby and the uaw in court. In fact this is why I will not buy GM ever. How many bond holders lost a good chuck of their retirement savings so the UAW could survive this?