Big Labor Payback Was Worthwhile Only to Big Labor

Mark Tapscott, Washington Examiner, reviews the federal government’s decision to rid itself of all of its General Motors stock, and examines the worth of this huge Big Labor Payback by the current administration.

Treasury Secretary Jack Lew announced yesterday that the federal government has sold its remaining shares of General Motors stock.

“With the final sale of GM stock, this important chapter in our nation’s history is now closed,” Lew said during a conference call with journalists. taxpayers recoup all $10 billion of that investment.

Was it worth it?

Lew and his boss in the Oval Office have no doubt about the answer to that question – of course it was because, as the Treasury head said Monday, the U.S. auto industry was saved from collapse, thus preserving an estimated 370,000 jobs.

But hundreds of GM creditors who were essentially stiffed by the government in the bailout in preference to the United Auto Workers union likely see things differently.

So do the 20,000 or so nonunion executives from GM’s former parts subsidiary, Delphi, who lost up to 70 percent of their pensions when the government imposed the UAW-favored bailout.