May 26, 2010--Obama Motors
Remember back in early 2009 when Barack Obama said that he would not allow General Motors or Chrysler to go bankrupt and disappear? And with them, much of what was left of the domestic production of automobiles?
And do you remember at the time what Republicans said about his intention to provide government loans to the former auto giants? How the plan would never work, how it was inappropriate in any case for the government to interfere with the free market, how he should just let them go belly up, how he was pandering to the Auto Workers Union, and how his real intention was to nationalize manufacturing in the United States because Obama was a socialist? To accomplish this, these conservatives contended, he would never allow GM or Chrysler to go private again and it would be one more step on the march to socialism or, as some whispered, Communism. As if they knew the difference between the two systems.
Well news about Chrysler and GM has been pushed off the front pages since we discovered other things to occupy our short attention spans and appetite for only one story at a time--health care came to the fore then financial re-regulation then the emergence of the Tea Party and then the Gulf oil spill and then Lindsay Lohan and Duchess Fergie and then . . .
So I thought to check back in to see how things have been going at Obama Motors as Rush Limbaugh, John Boehner, Sarah Palin and their ilk libeled his involvement with the automakers.
Both are now profitable. Both have paid back their government loans. And, according to the linked article from Reuters, both plan soon to issue new public stock offerings. Then, yes, as part of the original bailout deal the U.S. Government (we taxpayers) were given 60 percent of the non-debt GM stock. But, in regard to this, the companies are so far ahead of schedule in their recovery that Larry Summers, also quoted by Reuters, says that the Treasure Department will soon begin to dispose of those shares.
So much for Obama Motors. And socialism.
Have any of you heard a peep about any of this from your Republican friends? I haven't. As usual, they did their political damage through demagoguery and scare tactics and then moved on. It may be working politically but it is hypocrisy of the highest order.
And do you remember at the time what Republicans said about his intention to provide government loans to the former auto giants? How the plan would never work, how it was inappropriate in any case for the government to interfere with the free market, how he should just let them go belly up, how he was pandering to the Auto Workers Union, and how his real intention was to nationalize manufacturing in the United States because Obama was a socialist? To accomplish this, these conservatives contended, he would never allow GM or Chrysler to go private again and it would be one more step on the march to socialism or, as some whispered, Communism. As if they knew the difference between the two systems.
Well news about Chrysler and GM has been pushed off the front pages since we discovered other things to occupy our short attention spans and appetite for only one story at a time--health care came to the fore then financial re-regulation then the emergence of the Tea Party and then the Gulf oil spill and then Lindsay Lohan and Duchess Fergie and then . . .
So I thought to check back in to see how things have been going at Obama Motors as Rush Limbaugh, John Boehner, Sarah Palin and their ilk libeled his involvement with the automakers.
Both are now profitable. Both have paid back their government loans. And, according to the linked article from Reuters, both plan soon to issue new public stock offerings. Then, yes, as part of the original bailout deal the U.S. Government (we taxpayers) were given 60 percent of the non-debt GM stock. But, in regard to this, the companies are so far ahead of schedule in their recovery that Larry Summers, also quoted by Reuters, says that the Treasure Department will soon begin to dispose of those shares.
So much for Obama Motors. And socialism.
Have any of you heard a peep about any of this from your Republican friends? I haven't. As usual, they did their political damage through demagoguery and scare tactics and then moved on. It may be working politically but it is hypocrisy of the highest order.
posted by Steven Zwerling at
5:10 AM
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