Posted on 05/07/2010 5:07:54 AM PDT by XHogPilot
Evidence continues to mount that GM and its government enablers are just full of malarkey when claiming that the taxpayer-owned automaker has paid back its bailout "in full and ahead of schedule."
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wisc.), along with Reps. Jeb Hensarling (R-Texas) and Scott Garrett (R-N.J.), contacted Treasury officials to find out why they had claimed GM had repaid its debt in full. To which Treasury responded: "Treasury has never suggested that the loan repayment represented a full return of all government assistance." Which, among other things, is belied by an official Treasury press release titled, "GM REPAYS TREASURY LOAN IN FULL."
You can argue about semantics - that idiotic Ed Whitacre ad boasting about GM's repayment bona fides only implied that the makers of that Thalidomide baby of cars, the Pontiac Aztek, and the American answer to the Lada, the ultra-meltable '70s-era Chevy Nova Vega, had made themselves whole with the taxpayers - but that's a waste of time, given the larger picture.
And given the smaller picture, if the Competitive Enterprise Institute has anything to say about it. The free-market think thank has filed a deceptive advertising complaint with the Federal Trade Commission. Go here for details. CEI is no fan of the FTC as a concept but the group does have a sense of humor about such things. As CEI counsel Sam Kazman said, "If I applied for a car loan using GM's financially misleading approach, I’d be tossed out of the dealership on my ear." And, no doubt, into a nice, ultra-low-rate mortgage on a house he couldn't afford.
On Friday, we broke down the loan baloney for you at Reason.tv. Is there a catalytic converter for bullshit? Because that's what GM and Treasury seem to be running on these days.
GM paying back the federal government is tantamount to me paying back myself.
Government Motors will fail in the end. Unless the include cars in the health care bill and mandate we buy them. I can see them doing that. I even think they could get to the point of forcing us to take negative intrest loans. My vision of free market capitalisms future is a caught fish flopping on the deck.
When I was back in school long ago my roommate tried to pay his Visa bill with his MasterCard once.
This reminds me of that exactly.
And Obama/Pelosi HELLthControl is already a SUCCESS!
Since the lie was exposed I have not noted the commercial with GM’s CEO being broadcast anymore.
So long, GM.
This Chevy man is driving Fords.
as an aside, may I just offer the observation that there’s something eerily, freakily “1984-ish” about OnStar and therefore it’s a perfect fit with a paranoid, fascist regime like Obama’s?
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