We- me, you, every single taxpayer in America- gave GM $50 billion dollars. They have yet to repay a single nickle of that, yet they have used that money in ways that should outrage us all. Figures released today show GM losing $1.2 billion in Q3 through September 30th, so they have yet to make a penny to repay those nickles, but they sure are taking a solemn responsibility with our money.
Part 1 was about GM taking a hike on it's responsibility to clean up the mercury poisoning it put into the environment. Bankrupt companies whose asses are saved by taxpayers don't roll that way.
Part 2 described how GM is using taxpayer bailout money to create new research and development facilities and in the process create hundreds of jobs...in China.
Taxpayers bail them out, credit holders get the big shaft, union leaders sign on thinking they'll get ownership equity and save their jobs (after doing such a crappy job for the rank and file most of them are unemployed), and now ABC reports the next step in GM's plan to repay US taxpayers for giving them a megadollar reprieve: investing hundreds of millions in Europe.
Specifically, at a time when the nation's unemployment rate is at a decades high level, GM has cut thousands of U.S. jobs, and added jobs over seas.
Say what?
Of the $50 billion GM got, $34 billion came with no strings attached; here you go, have a debt-for-equity-swap nice day. The remaining $16 billion have strings attached and can only be used for specific purposes. Now GM's Chief Executive Fritz "Douche-Bag" Henderson will spend US tax dollars to save GM's money losing Opel unit in Europe. Wait, our tax dollars are going off shore again?
"We certainly need to be prudent about it, be very careful about it, but we do have the ability to run a global business," Henderson told reporters earlier this month.
Oh well that makes it okay then, he impied he would do it, and hardly anyone in congress noticed. Got it.
And he has been good on his word. If you're keeping score (which no one on congress or in the WH must be) GM has announced:
$293 million for a new R&D facility in China
$400 million to GM South Korea
$300 million for a new transmission plant in Mexico
hundreds more domestic job cuts
more domestic operations curtailment
GM still has about $13 billion left to use. Some congressmen have been trying to raise the alarm, to little effect. It doesn't help when the WH is not paying attention to it's single largest non Wall Street bailout winner.
At a meeting with President Obama Monday morning, Communist Party Secretary Yu Xheng Sheng told the U.S. president how well General Motors' Chinese division was doing.
"The business of GM in Shanghai is pretty good," Secretary Yu told the president. "By the end of October this year their sales has increased by 40 percent over the same period of last year. I think that the fantastic performance here in Shanghai is definitely a boost to their business in the United States."
"Absolutely," said President Obama. "I think they can learn from their operations here in terms of increasing sales back in the United States."
Oh, yeah, they're learning. They're learning that they can can simply tap the taxpayer for our money and put it where they are making money already. It's not lost on some congressmen and analysts:
"I don't think most Americans believe that when the taxpayer bailouts were happening it was intended for that purpose," said Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y. "It was intended to protect the American economy -- not take the money overseas."
Let's not overlook the fact this "investment" in GM was supposed to save domestic jobs when it was announced, not to shore up the global operations of a for-profit company that has shrank and lost $88 billion dollars of private investors money over since 2004. That's a hell of a burn rate on top of the $1.2 billion lost since coming out of bankruptcy.
Prior to GM announcing they would be dumping millions of US taxpayer dollars into Opel, they declined to sell the money losing unit.
GM got a boost from the Cash for Clunkers program that enabled it to come out of bankruptcy earlier than expected, and they have announced that they will begin repaying their loans at a rate of $1 billion a quarter. Keep in mind, that $34 billion was not a loan to be repaid, that was a debt equity swap. Of the remaining $16 billion? Yeah, well they promise to make those quarterly payments at least through Q2 of 2010. My math says that means either $2 billion or $3 billion, not the entire $16 billion that is technically repayable. GM is famous for that kind of double speak. But what they heck, they still have most of the "strings attached" money, and can use that to repay the debt. Nice shell game.
The Government Accountability Office, the Congressional Oversight Panel overseeing the $700 billion Wall Street and auto bailout fund, and former White House auto czar Steve Rattner all agree that taxpayers have lost billions in their investment.
Final note to union line workers: GM's pension fund is about $13 billion short of it's fiscal obligations.