The Right Opinion
Obama's (Un)American Auto Bailout
CHARLOTTE, N.C. -- Cue "Fanfare for the Common Man" and rev up the Government Motors engines. Wednesday is Great American Auto Bailout Day at the Democratic National Convention. Party propagandists have prepared a prime-time-ready film touting the "rescue's" benefits for American workers. UAW President Bob King will sing the savior-in-chief's praises.
But like all of the economic success stories manufactured by the White House, the $85 billion government handout is a big fat farce.
"I said I believe in American workers, I believe in this American industry, and now the American auto industry has come roaring back," Obama bragged on the campaign trail. Here's the inconvenient story they won't tell you:
GM is once again flirting with bankruptcy despite massive government purchases propping up its sales figures. GM stock is rock-bottom. Losses continue to be revised in the wrong direction. According to The Detroit News, "The Treasury Department says in a new report the government expects to lose more than $25 billion on the $85 billion auto bailout. That's 15 percent higher than its previous forecast."
The claims that GM paid back its taxpayer-funded loans "in full" -- a story peddled in campaign ads narrated by Hollywood actor Tom Hanks -- were debunked by the Treasury Department's TARP watchdog this summer. GM still owes nearly $30 billion of the $50 billion it received, and its lending arm still owes nearly $15 billion of the more than $17 billion it received. Bailout watchdog Mark Modica of the National Legal and Policy Center adds: "In addition to U.S. taxpayers anteing up, Canada put in over $10 billion, and GM was relieved of about $28 billion of bondholder obligations as UAW claims were protected. That's an improvement of almost $90 billion to the balance sheet, and the company still lags the competition."
While the Obama administration wraps the auto bailout in red, white and blue, it's foreign workers and overseas plants that are reaping redistributive rewards.
GM has increased its manufacturing capacity in China by an estimated 55 percent after the bailout, according to industry watchers. GM's Dan Akerson crowed at the Beijing auto show earlier this year: "One of our aims is to help grow a new generation of automotive engineers, designers and leaders right here in China." The U.S. auto giant's ventures with the Communist regime include Shanghai OnStar Telematics Co., Ltd.; GM China Advanced Technical Center; FAW-GM Light Duty Commercial Vehicle Co., Ltd., in Harbin, Heilongjiang; FAW-GM's Changchun plant in Changchun, Jilin; FAW-GM Hongta Yunnan Automobile Manufacturing Co., Ltd., in Qujing, Yunnan; and Shanghai Chengxin Used Car Operation and Management Co., Ltd.
In Europe, the UAW's appointee to the Government Motors Board of Directors, Steve Girsky, recklessly pushed the feds to hold onto GM's failing German-based Opel AG. The Great American Auto Bailout has been subsidizing this hemorrhaging enterprise while Obama failed to deliver on his 2008 campaign promise to salvage plants like the one in GOP vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan's hometown of Janesville, Wis. According to Forbes magazine, "GM Europe, comprised mostly of Opel and its sister brand, Vauxhall, lost $617 million in the first half of 2012, on top of a $747 million loss in 2011 and a $1.8 billion loss in 2010. In all, GM has lost almost $17 billion in Europe since 1999."
While Team Obama lambastes GOP rival Mitt Romney for outsourcing, Government Motors is now planning to invest $1 billion over the next five years -- not in America, but in Russia. That's on top of $7 billion total in China, close to $1 billion in Mexico, and $600 million for a shirt sponsorship deal with Manchester United, the British soccer club.
The DNC will put a rank-and-file U.S. autoworker on stage to back up Big Labor's cheerleading of the deal. Rest assured, this human shield will not tell viewers how Obama and the union bosses colluded to pervert bankruptcy law and shaft some 20,000 nonunion Delphi auto parts workers. The forgotten victims saw their pensions erode by up to 70 percent; their health benefits disappeared. The first lady is radio silent. Obama consigliere Valerie Jarrett ducked questions about the Delphi injustice from The Washington Times here in Charlotte.
Only in a fantasyland where America has 57 states, "JOBS" is a three-letter word and bailouts are "achievements" does Obama's rescue math add up. "Now I want to do the same thing with manufacturing jobs, not just in the auto industry, but in every industry," Obama vows. God help the American worker.
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18 Comments
India in GA
Wednesday, September 5, 2012 at 8:57 AM
"The claims that GM paid back its taxpayer-funded loans "in full" -- a story peddled in campaign ads narrated by Hollywood actor Tom Hanks -- were debunked by the Treasury Department's TARP watchdog this summer. "
If Tom Hanks had a shred of integrity, he would get his butt back on the air and retract that lie.
Richard Ryan in Lamar,Missouri
Wednesday, September 5, 2012 at 10:04 PM
India, integrity is a very limited commodity in Hollyweird. Believe me, we spent 5 months out there last winter. It`s a fairyland in more ways than one.
KN in Arkansas
Wednesday, September 5, 2012 at 9:09 AM
"God help the American worker."
God help us all.
wjm in Colorado
Wednesday, September 5, 2012 at 10:49 AM
And he wants to expand the "success" of Government Motors to all manufacturing!
Tex Horn in Texas
Wednesday, September 5, 2012 at 10:50 AM
Thanks, Michelle, for exposing the truth about the bailout of Government Motors. Also interesting to me is why the Republicans aren't using this information to their advantage. Where are Paul Ryan's charts when we need them?
Paul Couch in NC
Wednesday, September 5, 2012 at 11:25 AM
The only Michelle that I would vote for.
Dutch Vandervort in San Miguel
Wednesday, September 5, 2012 at 11:34 AM
Michelle, I am amazed that the GOP has not aired commercials featuring disenfranchised GM and Chrysler dealers who were were cut off by government intervention only because they were not politically aligned with the Democrat machine. Worse than government picking winners and losers is the fraud of political parties picking winners and losers. Can we spell, "Solyndra?"
jksisco in irvine, ca
Wednesday, September 5, 2012 at 11:49 AM
Like every policy enacted by Obama and his clown posse, it must come with an asterik, and the definition of success must be changed. Since GM is the only thing from the stimulus that, only through rose-colored glasses, looks successful he will play it for all it is worth.
wjm in Colorado
Wednesday, September 5, 2012 at 12:41 PM
Rose Colored glasses are insufficient to pull the stink off of Government Motors, and Obamao wants to apply this success story to all manufacturing. He wants us to mirror North Korea.
Tod-the tool guy in BROOKLYN, N.Y.
Wednesday, September 5, 2012 at 4:15 PM
Demacraps love to wallow in fantasyland, with delusions, demagoguery, and propaganda! Delphi workers lost their pensions, during the Auto bailout by the american Left. michigan state law was ignored, but don't talk to me ,see Carl Levin ,and Debbie Stabenow-Michigan Progressive Senators. Good blog, Michelle Malkin.
Alan Adler in Detroit
Wednesday, September 5, 2012 at 5:08 PM
I work for General Motors. Here are some factual corrections to this post:
1.) General Motors repaid its loans to the federal government in 2010 - five years before they were due. Remaining debt was converted to equity in the company. The U.S. Treasury received $23 million in sales of shares at GM's initial public offering in November 2010. The remaining stock holdings account for 26 percent of equity on a fully diluted basis.
GM's global policy is to build where it sells, which lowers the cost for consumers. GM does business in more than 120 countries and roughly 70 percent of sales are generated outside the United States.
GM's plant in Janesville, Wis., stopped regular production in December 2008. Since July 2009, GM has announced U.S. facility investments totaling more than $7.3 billion, retaining or creating 18,600 jobs.
mark in massachusetts
Wednesday, September 5, 2012 at 5:55 PM
Bullshit! GM did NOT repay the United States Treasury!
Richard Ryan in Lamar,Missouri
Wednesday, September 5, 2012 at 10:10 PM
Liar, liar, pants on fire. I wonder how libaturds like you can look at themselves in the mirror each morning. Of course being a union worker-bee seems to be the answer. Prattle on my friend. I for one will buy another GM piece of union crap when hell freezes over, and I know a lot of other people like me. The communist thug in the white house, and union members are killing the goose that laid the golden egg.
India in GA
Thursday, September 6, 2012 at 12:00 AM
Makes me love my FORD TRUCK even more!!
India in GA
Wednesday, September 5, 2012 at 10:12 PM
"Remaining debt was converted to equity in the company."
Alan, you see how that is not the same as re-paying the loan, right?
mark in massachusetts
Wednesday, September 5, 2012 at 5:56 PM
Also,the dealerships that we're NOT affected when they closed a lot of them were the ones owned by minority dealers!
Robert of Prague in UT
Wednesday, September 5, 2012 at 8:38 PM
Michelle;
Tnx for another hard-hitting piece of research. I've known re: the bondholders & selective dealership closures rip off for some time. Do the shareholders have any legal recourse w/ mostly lib & corrupt black-robes? Keep up the good work.
Tex Horn in Texas
Thursday, September 6, 2012 at 6:49 PM
To the disillusioned in Detroit: Government Motors is "still" on the verge of bankruptcy.