Here's a stand-alone newsbite of a Fiscal Times piece...
In the second presidential debate, Mr. Obama attacked
early on, saying, “Governor Romney said we should let Detroit go bankrupt.”
Note to Obama fans: GM did go bankrupt – filing for
Chapter 11 protection against its creditors on June 1, 2009.
It’s what happened next that the president can take "credit"
for – a handout of $49.5 billion in taxpayer money to GM, some $27 billion of
which remains outstanding, and another $17 billion to its financial arm Ally
Financial, which still owes $14.7 billion.
(*SMIRK*)
BY THE WAY... I'M NOT SURE IF THE ABOVE FIGURES INCLUDE
THE TAX FORGIVENESS OBAMA AND THE DEMS IN CONTROL OF BOTH HOUSES OF CONGRESS AT
THE TIME TACKED ON! OH, YEAH... LOOK IT UP... TAX FORGIVENESS - GOING FORWARD,
NO LESS - WAS PART OF THE BAILOUT!
In other words, Obama didn’t "save" General
Motors; American taxpayers did, with an assist from the Federal Reserve.
ROMNEY OPPOSED THE BAILOUT, BELIEVING CORRECTLY THAT GM
SHOULD HAVE GONE THROUGH THE SAME NORMAL BANKRUPTCY PROCESS DEMANDED BY LAW
THAT ANY OTHER COMPANY WOULD HAVE HAD TO GO THROUGH.
While liberals rant about the bailouts of Wall Street, it
is worthwhile noting that of the $417 billion in TARP funds spent to stabilize
the economy, only $65 billion has yet to be repaid – and more than half of that
is owed by GM and Chrysler.
The latest TARP report from the Congressional Budget
Office says that the government invested nearly $80 billion in those two auto
giants and that taxpayers are still on the hook for roughly $37 billion.
TOO BAD ROMNEY DIDN'T HAVE THE FIGURES ON HOW MUCH
FOREIGN INVESTMENT (INTO CHINA FOR EXAMPLE, BUT ALSO INTO OTHER COUNTRIES) GM
HAS MADE SINCE THE BAILOUTS USING BAILOUT MONEY! (OF COURSE IT'S TOO MUCH TO
EXPECT THAT THE MSM WOULD DEMAND SUCH QUESTIONS - AND ANSWERS.)
In the same report, the CBO projects that handouts to
Wall Street firms will ultimately net the government a cool $11 billion profit.
(*SNORT*)
FOLKS... THESE "PROFITS" ARE BASED UPON
"MANAGEMENT FEES" AND "INTEREST SPREAD GAINS" WHEN WALL
STREET AND THE BANKS TOOK FEDERAL FUNDS AT NEAR-ZERO INTEREST AND THEN
IMMEDIATELY "INVESTED" THEM IN U.S. TREASURY BONDS PAYING SLIGHTLY
HIGHER INTEREST! IN OTHER WORDS... IT WAS ALL A FUCKING SCAM! OLIGARCHY FOR THE
OLIGARCHS! THE RICH GET RICHER AND THE PEOPLE GET SCREWED - AND THIS WAS BY
DESIGN... BERNANKE'S DESIGN... GEITHNER'S DESIGN... BOTH OF WHOM WERE APPOINTED
BY AND ARE ULTIMATELY RESPONSIBLE TO WHO...? BARACK HUSSEIN OBAMA...!!!
They say the auto industry, on the other hand, will never
pay back taxpayers. According to the congressional bean counters, $20 billion
is gone for good.
Where did that money go? Mainly, it went to paying off
debts owed by GM and Chrysler, and – in an historic distortion of our
bankruptcy proceedings – to securing the pensions and livelihoods of UAW
workers.
(It turns out the real debt was that of Mr. Obama to
organized labor, which had ponied up some $400 million to help him defeat John
McCain.)
The Obama administration strong-armed the auto companies’
creditors into accepting undeniably unfair terms – terms that saw pensions
obliterated for non-union workers but saved for those carrying a UAW card.
YEP.
Terms that saw non-UAW shops close but UAW factories stay
open.
YEP.
Terms that doled out ownership in GM with political
favoritism as a guiding principle.
YEP!
These charges are not at issue. In the government-managed
reorganization of GM, bond holders (secured bond holders, who normally are at
the top of the pay-out chart) were given equity in the car-maker at a price of
$2.7 billion per one percent ownership. The government ended up paying $834
million for every one percent it claimed; the UAW paid only $629 million.
JEEZUS FRIGGIN' CHRIST, FOLKS... THEY DIDN'T EVEN TRY
TO HIDE IT! THEY TRAMPLED THE RULE OF LAW AND FUNNELED PUBLIC FUNDS TO
DEMOCRAT-FRIENDLY UNIONS RIGHT IN BROAD DAYLIGHT AND THEY GOT AWAY WITH IT!
Why did the UAW receive such favorable treatment? The
government at the time argued that the UAW was already making sufficient
sacrifices. While true that union members gave up cost-of-living increases and
agreed to a no-strike rule, they were protected against the kind of pay cuts
that would have made GM truly competitive.
YEP. THAT'S THE OTHER THING. CONTRARY TO MSM SPIN, GM
HAS NOT BEEN "SAVED" LONG TERM. ALL THAT HAPPENED IN 2009 WAS THAT
THE CAN WAS KICKED FURTHER DOWN THE ROAD. (FRANKLY... IT'S A FUCKING DISASTER.)
Months earlier, Congress refused an emergency loan to the
auto makers because the UAW would not lower pay to compete with foreign car
makers operating in non-union U.S. factories. The reality is that the UAW could
have been harder pressed.
SHOULD HAVE BEEN HARDER PRESSED!
If GM and Chrysler had stopped turning out cars, the
union was toast.
WHICH WAS OBAMA'S FEAR! HIS MAIN CONCERN! (THUS... THE
ABOVE-NOTED FINANCIAL SKEW TOWARDS THE UNIONS EVEN AT THE COST OF THROWING
EXISTING BANKRUPTCY LAW OUT THE WINDOW!)
It was not only the ownership share that was skewed
towards the UAW. As jobs began to come back, it was the UAW plants that kicked
into high gear. Workers at GM’s plant in Moraine, Ohio, who had been laid off
in 2007, were not included in the re-hiring.
(*SMIRK*)
Why? Because they did not belong to the UAW.
IS THERE A SMOKING GUN MEMO "PROVING" THIS?
NO. NOT THAT I KNOW OF. BUT... READ ON!
The Moraine plant was reportedly one of GM’s most
productive, but under the terms of GM’s reorganization, its workers were
“banned from transferring to other plants,” according to Sharon Terlep at The
Wall Street Journal.
(*PURSED LIPS*)
Moraine was not the only non-UAW facility to fall under
the knife; a truck plant in Ontario organized by the Canadian Auto Workers also
went down.
SO MUCH FOR "INTERNATIONAL FEDERATIONS" AND
"INTERNATIONAL BROTHERHOODS."
(*SNORT*)
The treatment of laid-off workers was not the only favor
dealt the UAW. In a growing scandal, Obama’s former auto czar and two Treasury
officials appear implicated in the decision to eliminate the pensions of 20,000
non-union workers at GM’s Delphi unit, while protecting benefits for UAW
members. Under oath, they blamed the decision to wipe out the non-union
pensions on the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, but emails uncovered
earlier this year show that Treasury held meetings on the matter in which the
PBGC was not included.
The auto task force individuals involved have stonewalled
Congress and SIGTARP investigators looking into the matter.
FOLKS... ALL THIS INFO CAN BE FOUND IN THE ARCHIVES
HERE AT USUALLY RIGHT.
With tens of billions still at stake, taxpayers may
wonder, is GM healthy?
Certainly the company has staged a comeback.
Its costs were indeed lowered... in large part because
its debt burden was eased.
(*SNICKER*)
It is not clear that the structural overhang of overly
generous benefits and wages has entirely disappeared. Sales today industry-wide
are being boosted by record-low interest rates, thanks to Fed easing, and also
by a slightly unnerving boom in subprime lending – especially at GM.
Through a recently-acquired financing arm, GM subprime
loans have accounted for a growing share of total sales – from 4.8% in late
2010 to 8.2% early this year.
MEANING... GM HAS TAKEN ON MORE RISK. THEY'VE NEAR
DOUBLED THEIR EXPOSURE TO POTENTIAL BAD DEBT.
(*SHRUG*)
The industry average is around 6%. Some have charged the
firm with hyping sales in order to boost its share price. The stock is
currently selling at around $25; only as it moves closer to the breakeven price
of $54 is there any chance that the government will sell its shares. Management
has complained that being known as Government Motors inhibits hiring; they
would like Uncle Sam out of the way. The Obama White House, however, is not
about to unload the shares at current levels, broadcasting the resulting losses
for the world to see.
UNLESS SOMEHOW OBAMA WINS RE-ELECTION - AND THEN MY BET
IS THAT OBAMA WILL ORDER AN IMMEDIATE SALE AND CLAIM THE PROCEEDS (EVEN AT A
LOSS) AS "NEW REVENUE." (YES... "REVENUE" vs.
"PROFIT.")
Mitt Romney, for the record, advocated for a process not
unlike the one that ultimately led to GM’s restructuring – absent the union
giveaways.
IN PLAIN ENGLISH: ROMNEY ADVOCATED FOR THE RULE OF LAW.
EXISTING LAW. NOT "MAKE IT UP AS WE GO ALONG" RULE BY EXECUTIVE
ORDER.
In his 2008 op-ed, which he titled “The Way Forward for
the Auto Industry” but which The New York Times published as “Let Detroit Go
Bankrupt”...
REALLY...?!?!? REALLY...?!?!?! HELL... I DIDN'T KNOW
THAT! FRIGGIN' AMAZING... UNFRIGGIN'BELIEVABLE!
FOLKS... YA CAN'T MAKE THIS SHIT UP!
...Romney called for new labor agreements to make
domestic car companies competitive, noting the $2,000 per vehicle cost
disparity between U.S. makers and their overseas rivals.
LOGICAL!
He pushed for a change in management, improved relations
between labor and the bosses, which might be helped by getting “rid of the
planes, the executive dining rooms,” as well as profit sharing or stock grants,
and called for investment in new technologies, “especially fuel-saving design.”
INTERESTING. (FRANKLY I DON'T RECALL THIS 2008 OP-ED. THAT
SAID, APPARENTLY THE CHICAGO CREW - WITH AN ASSIST FROM THE MSM - HAS BEEN
BUSY, BUSY, BUSY IN DISTORTING ROMNEY'S RECORD. (MORE SO EVEN THAN I HAD
BELIEVED!)
Never could Romney have imagined that his thoughtful
assessment of the industry’s future prospects could be held against him.
(*NOD*)
But then, he might never have imagined a campaign so
perilously built on distortions and half-truths, and so eager to run away from
the reality of the past four years.
(*SHRUG OF AGREEMENT*)
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