Where Has All The GM Bailout Gone?


Taxpayers will be left holding the bag on the Big Labor bailout of GM and union officials.  Realclearmarkets.com has the story.

Federal Meddling: Remember the promise that taxpayers would get back every dollar taken from them and dumped into the General Motors bailout? The promise is coming up about $10 billion short.

All told, GM ended up with some $50 billion in direct cash, loans and bankruptcy aid. The bailout began with $13.4 billion from President Bush’s Troubled Asset Relief Program and was topped off with another $30.1 billion in May 2009. The Obama administration provided a full $36 billion of the total.

The beleaguered American taxpayer was supposed to be paid back in full, but that won’t be happening.

Last week the Treasury Department, which has no idea how to run a car company, said it planned to sell by Dec. 31 the remaining 31.1 million shares of GM stock it holds. When everything is settled, taxpayers will have lost nearly $10 billion.

Some will say that’s a small price to pay to keep the company in business and 1 million jobs from being lost. Don’t believe it.

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