Free Republic

Two members of Congress are asking if the Treasury Department disproportionately targeted more Republican or conservative owned auto dealerships during the government-lead restructuring of General Motors in 2009. Breitbart.com reported today that Mike Kelly (R-PA) and Jim Renacci (R-OH) released a letter asking Treasury Secretary Jack Lew to release documents regarding the process and methodology that determined which GM dealerships were closed.

Two Congressmen are asking the Treasury Department if it inappropriately scrutinized conservative-owned businesses the same way it targeted Tea Party groups filing for tax-exempt status. Republicans Mike Kelly (PA-03) and Jim Renacci (OH-16) circulated a letter Thursday requesting Treasury Secretary Jack Lew release documents detailing the process and methodology the Automotive Task Force used to shut down General Motors dealerships in 2009 during the automotive industry crisis. Renacci's Northeast Ohio Chevrolet dealership was closed in 2010 after losing a battle with General Motors. Congress loaned General Motors $50 billion in 2009 after declaring bankruptcy, which resulted in the federal government...

Former half-term Alaska Governor Sarah Palin, who often attacks Democrats for hurting small businesses, slammed American automakers Tesla Motors and Fisker Automotive for being "losers" on her Facebook page. Palin attacked Fisker Automotive for laying off 75 percent of its employees last Friday, reports the Los Angeles Times. Palin also accused the Obama administration for supposedly attempting "to pick 'winners and losers' in the free market," but did not mention that for decades the federal government has made loans to businesses. She showed additional contempt for hybrid electric cars by slamming General Motors' Volt, which tripled its sales in 2012,...

The Chevy Volt has inarguably been the poster child for President Obama's push to electrify America's auto fleet. Billions of taxpayer dollars have been spent to produce and subsidize the plug-in electric car. For years we have heard about the supposedly amazing technology for the Volt which would lead America to energy independence, be a "game-changer" for General Motors and provide a multitude of new green jobs. Proclamations were made that supply for the wonder-car could not keep up with the demand. Well, March's sales figures are in and give further confirmation that the lofty claims were all lies. March's...

The U.S. government has sold another chunk of its stake in General Motors Co., the Associated Press reported. The Treasury Department said in its February report to Congress that it sold $489.9 million worth of GM common stock last month. The report said the government has recovered about $29.8 billion of its $49.5 billion bailout of the Detroit automaker. That means the government has yet to recover $19.7 billion of its investment in the automaker, AP said. That means it still owns about 277 million shares. Those would have to sell for around $71 each for the government to break...

Uh-oh: Susan Docherty, dispatched from China to Europe to teach the Eurotrash the proper appreciation and respect for Chevrolet and Cadillac, has come up with a strategy that assures the destruction of Cadillac outside of the U.S. Cadillac’s global aspirations hinge on its success in Europe, Docherty told WardsAuto. Again:” To be successful in China, Cadillac must first be successful in Europe. No blond jokes please, show some respect. “If a luxury brand is successful in Europe, whether that brand is Chanel or Prada, or Mercedes or BMW, people in parts of Asia look to see what Europeans validate as...

Interesting news for auto-watchers: Berkshire Hathaway (NYSE: BRK-A), the savvy conglomerate controlled by the great Warren Buffett, disclosed in an SEC filing on Thursday that it had bought 10 million shares of General Motors (NYSE: GM). That comes on top of another 15 million shares of GM Berkshire bought earlier in 2012, bringing the total value of the company's investment in the General to nearly $700 million as of Thursday's close. That's not chump change, even by Buffett's standards. What might Berkshire be thinking? Is GM a value stock? The obvious guess for anyone who knows anything about Buffett's career...

You may recall that during the presidential election, the Treasury Department refused requests by General Motors to unload the government's stake in the giant automaker. Taxpayers had sunk $50 billion into a union bailout in 2009 and were now proud owners of 26.5 percent of the struggling company. Reportedly, GM had growing concerns that the stigma of "Government Motors" was hurting sales in the United States. At the time, any transaction would have come at a steep loss to taxpayers and undermined the president's questionable campaign assertions that the auto union rescue had been a huge success. Well, now...

The Treasury Department said on Wednesday that it planned to sell off its entire stake in General Motors within 15 months, eliminating another reminder of the bailouts precipitated by the financial crash of 2008. The news comes a week after the Obama administration completely sold off its entire stake in the American International Group, one of the most controversial rescues of the market crisis. According to a plan outlined on Wednesday, the Treasury Department will sell a little less than half of its stake, or 200 million shares, back to General Motors for $5.5 billion by year end. The purchase...

A New York federal judge may rule imminently on a case that could reverse the General Motors (GM) bailout and send the company back into bankruptcy, according to sources close to the case. At issue is a backroom deal hatched by GM to fulfill the Obama administration’s demand for a quick bankruptcy, draining the automaker of nearly all of its cash on hand and leaving it in worse shape than it was when it collapsed in 2009. One condition of GM’s bailout was to shore up its overseas subsidiaries. On the eve of entering bankruptcy, the company cut a $367...

General Motors' Chevrolet Volt plug-in hybrid car topped Consumer Reports' annual owner-satisfaction survey for the second straight year. Ninety-two percent of Volt owners surveyed by the influential consumer magazine said they would definitely buy the Volt again, earning the electric car the top ranking. Last year, 93 percent of respondents said they would buy the car again. "The Volt's two-year reign at the top of our satisfaction survey points to the continuing trend of owners' enthusiasm for cars that are fuel-efficient, especially as we see more and more hybrid and electric models hitting the market," Consumer Reports' auto editor, Rik...

DETROIT (AP) -- General Motors is giving its Chevrolet Spark a jolt of electricity. An all-electric version of the mini-car will debut this week at the Los Angeles Auto Show. It goes on sale this summer in California, Oregon, Canada and South Korea, where it's made. Other markets will follow. Unlike the Chevrolet Volt sedan, which can run in all-electric mode but also has a backup gas engine, the Spark EV is a pure electric. GM won't say how far the car will go on a charge, but says it will be a top performer among the small number of...

Thousands of German workers at Opel cars will lose their jobs in another round of cuts announced this week by the car maker’s owner General Motors. As many as 2,300 people have already been let go. … The company lost half a billion dollars in Europe alone in the third quarter, when it produced just 196,000 cars—down from 270,000 in the same quarter last year. …

President Obama has been touting his bailout of General Motors as a reason for people in Michigan and Ohio to vote for him. However, there is one small problem with his argument. Regardless of the past, GM’s only hope for long-term survival nowis if Mitt Romney wins on November 6. If Obama is reelected, GM is doomed to a second bankruptcy (or to another taxpayer bailout). This is because Obama is committed to doubling down on the two policies that drove GM bankrupt in the first place: a weak, unstable dollar, and unrealistic corporate average fuel economy (CAFE) requirements. In...

Not in America, but in Europe. The company's alliance with Peugeot is struggling — and that means intervention by the French government. A grim situation for global automakers selling cars in Europe is growing worse. Now the two biggest Detroit-based automakers are undertaking drastic cost-cutting measures to stem massive losses. General Motors Co. (GM) is joining forces with PSA/Peugeot-Citroen to split the cost of developing new models for GM's Opel and Vauxhall brands on the continent. Ford Motor Co. (F) is shutting its under-utilized Belgian assembly plant in Genk. Ford will juggle production among its plant in Valencia, Spain and...

The upstate economy took another significant blow today as General Motors announced it will close its fuel cell plant in Honeoye Falls, just south of Rochester. The decision means the 220 salaried employees who worked in the research and development facility won’t be employed in the area. The company said most of the employees will be offered the opportunity to transfer to the Global Powertrain Engineering Headquarters in Pontiac, Mich., the Democrat and Chronicle reports. “This decision has significant business advantages for the company,”said Kim Carpenter, GM spokeswoman. “For example, it will enable GM to capitalize on synergies with the...

From the “how’s that for irony” file comes a report that the judge that signed off on the GM bailout has been having second thoughts, because — surprise, surprise, surprise — he wasn’t informed about part of the deal. The Washington Free Beacon reports: As GM teetered on the edge of bankruptcy in June 2009, it cut a $367 million “lock-up agreement” with several major creditors in order to prevent its Canadian subsidiary from going under. The move spared the subsidiary from fulfilling the $1 billion debt it owed the creditors—major hedge funds—ensuring that GM would not have to face...

Obama has made tried to make political hay about Romney and Bain Capital and the assertion that Romney has moved jobs overseas. Whatever the merits of that line of attack, Obama is conveniently neglecting to acknowledge his complicity in doing that very thing. That very thing, being the exporting of American jobs. please visit: http://blastedfools.wordpress.com/2012/10/08/baseball-hot-dogs-apple-pie-chevrolet-and-chairman-mao/) to see the video. The subtrifuge of Obama and how the Democrats have misled on the Detroit Auto bailout, are relatively trivial in comparison to the clear truths that this narratives reveals. I have at various times commented in passing, that the reality of how...

Internet users in four swing states will begin to see a video that faults President Obama for allowing taxpayer dollars to finance communism based on reports that Shanghai GM backed a Chinese propaganda film. “The Chinese Government recently released a propaganda movie on the Founding of the Communist Party. And who was the movie’s primary sponsor? General Motors. Yes. Our taxpayer dollars that President Obama gave General Motors in the auto-bailout are helping promote communism,” the Let Freedom Ring (LFR) ad narrator says, citing the General Motors bailout. GM has denied any connection to the Chinese company that funded the...

Here we go again. Déjà vu all over again as General Motors spreads rumors that they are tired of being Government Motors and they are so cash rich that they offered to buy Treasury's taxpayer-funded stake in the company. In typical deceptive GM fashion, sources were not named and spokesman Jim Cain refused to confirm the rumors. This is not the first time GM played the rumor game, as I previously wrote about over a year ago. Supposedly, GM wants to buy back about $5 billion of shares from Treasury, but Treasury just won't sell. No kidding. As if GM...

CHICAGO (MarketWatch) -- The Treasury Department is resisting General Motors' push for the government to sell off its stake in the auto maker, The Wall Street Journal reports. Following a $50 billion bailout in 2009, the U.S. taxpayers now own almost 27% of the company. But the newspaper said GM executives are now chafing at that, saying it hurts the company's reputation and its ability to attract top talent due to pay restrictions. Earlier this year, GM GM -1.27% presented a plan to repurchase 200 million of the 500 million shares the U.S. holds with the balance being sold via...

This is an exerpt that illustrates my point: "At GM's Friday share price of $24.14, the U.S. would lose about $15 billion on the GM bailout if it sold its entire stake. While GM stock would need to reach $53 a share for the U.S. to break even, Treasury officials would consider selling at a price in the $30s, people familiar with the government's thinking have said." The real Elephant in the Room is that $15,000,000,000 would be locked in as a transfer of wealth from the taxpayers to the United Auto Workers. Of course, on the other hand, if...

TORONTO - The Canadian Auto Workers union said negotiating with the big three automakers - General Motors, Chrysler and Ford - before Monday's midnight strike deadline is like juggling "a lot of balls up in the air." If the CAW, which represents 21,500 members in the three companies, doesn't reach a settlement with the big three, it could mean a walkout could start at 12:01 a.m. Monday. "It's a little tough to tell at this point in time what the impact will be because it depends upon status of bargaining with each of the three companies," CAW secretary treasurer Peter Kennedy said...

On the eleventh anniversary of Osama Bin Laden’s attack on America, it’s worthwhile to examine just what he hoped to accomplish. He spelled out his goals in three documents: a 1996 fatwa titled, “Declaration of War Against The Americans Occupying The Land of the Two Holy Places”; a 2002 “Letter to America”; and a 2004 video. In these manifestos, he declared his willingness to die, of course. His goals included: “Terrorizing” Americans; Demoralizing US troops; Weakening and destruction of Israel; Unification of Muslims throughout the Middle East via “democratic” establishment of Shariah law in “governments of our countries which act...

(Reuters) - General Motors Co sold a record number of Chevrolet Volt sedans in August — but that probably isn't a good thing for the automaker's bottom line. Nearly two years after the introduction of the path-breaking plug-in hybrid, GM is still losing as much as $49,000 on each Volt it builds, according to estimates provided to Reuters by industry analysts and manufacturing experts. GM on Monday issued a statement disputing the estimates. Cheap Volt lease offers meant to drive more customers to Chevy showrooms this summer may have pushed that loss even higher.

* GM losing as much as $49,000 per Volt sold * Cheap leases likely only exacerbate the losses * GM still years away from break even on the car * New plug-in competitors soon from Ford, Honda Sept 10 (Reuters) - General Motors Co sold a record number of Chevrolet Volt sedans in August - but that probably isn't a good thing for the automaker's bottom line. Nearly two years after the introduction of the path-breaking plug-in hybrid, GM is still losing as much as $49,000 on each Volt it builds, according to estimates provided to Reuters by industry analysts...

From Paul Ryan’s convention speech yesterday: >>>President Barack Obama came to office during an economic crisis, as he has reminded us a time or two. Those were very tough days, and any fair measure of his record has to take that into account. My home state voted for President Obama. When he talked about change, many people liked the sound of it, especially in Janesville, where we were about to lose a major factory. A lot of guys I went to high school with worked at that GM plant. Right there at that plant, candidate Obama said: “I believe that...

Obama told a campaign event audience in Colorado earlier this month, "I said, let's bet on America's workers. And we got management and workers to come together, making cars better than ever, and now GM is number one again and the American auto industry has come roaring back." His conclusion: "So now I want to say that what we did with the auto industry, we can do in manufacturing across America. Let's make sure advanced, high-tech manufacturing jobs take root here, not in China. Let's have them here in Colorado. And that means supporting investment here." Was he calling for...

Obama's Jobs Council chief, GM CEO Jeff Immelt says he will vote for Romney. Obama has had no jobs meetings in months.

Readers with long memories may recall that Charles E. Wilson, president of General Motors and nominee for secretary of defense, got into trouble when he told a Senate committee, "What is good for the country is good for General Motors, and what's good for General Motors is good for the country." That was in 1953, and Wilson was trying to make the point that General Motors was such a big company -- it sold about half the cars in the U.S. back then -- that its interests were inevitably aligned with those of the country as a whole. Things are...

President Obama is proud of his bailout of General Motors. That’s good, because, if he wins a second term, he is probably going to have to bail GM out again. The company is once again losing market share, and it seems unable to develop products that are truly competitive in the U.S. market. Right now, the federal government owns 500,000,000 shares of GM, or about 26% of the company. It would need to get about $53.00/share for these to break even on the bailout, but the stock closed at only $20.21/share on Tuesday. This left the government holding $10.1 billion...

Struggling hybrid carmaker Fisker Automotive named Tony Posawatz, a General Motors veteran who oversaw production of the Chevy Volt, its new CEO on Tuesday, making him the third executive to helm the startup in a year. Lead Fisker board director Ray Lane of Silicon Valley venture capital firm Kleiner Perkins Caufield & Byers, the auto company's largest investor, said Tuesday he has known Posawatz for a couple of years and recruited him to replace Tom LaSorda, who was named CEO in February. LaSorda, a veteran of Chrysler and GM, had replaced company founder Henrik Fisker. Lane said Fisker originally envisioned...

As the Obama campaign continues to tout the GM bailout as an industrial policy success, the Treasury Department continues to revise upward the staggering losses inflicted on U.S. taxpayers. On the day Government Motors, aka GM, announced it was recalling at least 38,000 of its vehicles — Impalas used by police nationwide and in Canada — due to a crash risk, a new Treasury report said it now expects to lose $25 billion on the bailout, $3.3 billion more than forecast earlier. As the Detroit News reported, this loss was based on GM's stock price at the time of the...

Bailouts for everyone! That's the latest push coming from President Barack Obama's lips. During a campaign event in Colorado today, Obama touted his "successful" bailout of the auto industry.  President Obama, while villifying Mitt Romney for opposing the auto industry bailout, bragged about the success of his decision to provide government assistance and said he now wants to see every manufacturing industry come roaring back. “I said, I believe in American workers, I believe in this American industry, and now the American auto industry has come roaring back,� he said. “Now I want to do the same thing with manufacturing...

Matthew Boyle of the Daily Caller reports that internal emails show Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner was “the driving force” behind terminating the pensions of 20,000 non-union retirees from the Delphi auto parts manufacturing company, as part of the government’s bailout plan for General Motors.  Union workers, on the other hand, “saw their pensions topped off and made whole.” This decision was supposed to be made by the independent Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation, which is meant to be free of political influence, so it can represent the interests of private-sector pensioners.Instead, the Daily Caller unearthed a string of emails that show...

Business General Motors GM profits slip 41% as European struggles take their toll America's largest car firm made $1.5bn in the second quarter of 2012, with European division reporting operating loss of $361m Share 531 Email Dominic Rushe guardian.co.uk, Thursday 2 August 2012 09.25 EDT General Motors GM's CEO Dan Akerson said: 'We have more work to do to offset the headwinds we face.' Photograph: Jeff Kowalsky/EPA General Motors' profits fell 41% in the second quarter as troubles in Europe undercut strong sales in North America. America's largest automaker made $1.5bn in the second quarter of 2012, compared with $2.5bn...

This wasn’t supposed to happen until Nov. 7: It’s like the last act of Titus Andronicus over at GM corporate headquarters. Two weeks ago, Opel chief Karl-Friedrich Stracke presented numbers to Dan Akerson. Akerson fires him. Opel gets two interim chiefs in a week. Last Thursday, Opel’s new design chief Dave Lyon doesn’t even start his job. Today, media in the U.S. and Germany report that Lyon had been escorted from the building and to a waiting car by GM’s head of personnel. A day later, global marketing chief Joel Ewanick suddenly leaves. Instead of wishing him all the best...

DETROIT — General Motors says it plans to invest $833 million in Canada for research and development. The company says it began spending the money in 2009 and will invest at least $150 million per year through 2016. Much of the money will go to a research center in Oshawa, Ontario.

DETROIT -- General Motors says it plans to invest $833 million in Canada for research and development. The company says it began spending the money in 2009 and will invest at least $150 million per year through 2016. Much of the money will go to a research center in Oshawa, Ontario.

President Barack Obama’s former auto industry adviser and two former Treasury Department officials cracked at the last minute before a House oversight committee subcommittee hearing and agreed to stop stonewalling an investigation into alleged union favoritism during the administration’s General Motors bailout. Ron Bloom, Obama’s former auto czar, and former Treasury officials Matt Feldman and Harry Wilson have refused to give interviews to the Special Inspector General for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP) about their roles in topping up pensions for union workers while non-union workers lost nearly their entire pensions. The Treasury Department’s actions during the auto bailout...

To quote Lando Calrissian, this deal's getting worse all the time. General Motors(GM) shares fell to a fresh 2012 closing low of 19.57 on Monday. The stock hit 19 in mid-December, the lowest since the auto giant came public at $33 in November 2010 following its June 2009 bankruptcy. Normally you might say, tough luck investors. But this is Government Motors. The Treasury still owns 26.5% of GM, or 500 million shares. Taxpayers are still out $26.4 billion in direct aid. Shares would have to hit $53 for the government to break even. Those shares were worth about $9.8 billion...

FORT WAYNE, Ind. (WANE) A Gay Pride rainbow flag is flying high above the Fort Wayne G-M Assembly Plant. A viewer submitted a photo to WANE on Monday using our Report!t feature of a Gay Pride flag at the Fort Wayne GM Plant. The flag is stirring controversy for some but making others like Jerry Lawson hopeful equality is on its way. "I think that they're just setting a very huge example for Fort Wayne that equality is pretty much on its way," Lawson said. GM put the rainbow flag up earlier this week. Officials there said they notified...

Running a diesel like engine on gasoline is something Delphi is doing in notable fashion. They claim they are on to a promising way to enjoy an engine that gives the vehicle owner high efficiency and low emissions. Delphi, a major Michigan-based auto-parts supplier, is developing this technology which has shown impressive results in tests. Delphi tried out its combustion concept, which reaps the best of two worlds of low-emission gas and efficient diesel engines. Delphi claims its technology is an improvement upon the fuel economy of gas-powered cars, and can bring forth benefits of the hybrid at less the...

General Motors is becoming China Motors. Forget the spin. The evidence is clear and convincing. Did U.S. taxpayers save GM for China? Listen to the candid comments of GM's CEO.

GM realigning technology organizations; Warren Research and Development Center will see cuts WARREN, Mich. - At General Motors' Research and Development Center at the Warren Technical Center campus there is pain and still more concern. Local 4 has learned the automotive company plans to cut more white collar jobs. Employees were notified about the cuts this past Friday. GM gave Local 4 the following statement on Monday: "GM leadership recently notified employees working in its Global Research and Development organization of plans to realign the organization's business structure. These moves will enable the organization to better focus on commercializing customer-focused...

One of Mitt Romney's top advisers said Saturday that President Obama's decision to bailout Chrysler and General Motors was actually Romney's idea. "[Romney's] position on the bailout was exactly what President Obama followed. I know it infuriates them to hear that," Eric Fehrnstrom, senior adviser to the Romney campaign, said. "The only economic success that President Obama has had is because he followed Mitt Romney's advice."

Why would Dr. Peter Gleick, president of the Pacific Institute, a MacArthur Foundation Fellow, and chairman of an American Geophysical Union task force on "scientific ethics and integrity," break the law to engage in a smear campaign against a small think-tank called The Heartland Institute that resulted in "Fakegate"? As Alan Caruba related in the opening paragraph of his article published on Tuesday, April 3rd, titled "Fatetgate: The War on Science," "[g]enerations of Americans have been raised to venerate science and those who have enhanced and extended our lives through its application. The rise of environmentalism, however, has generated a...

Don't get too excited about the record sales number just posted by General Motors Chevy Volt in March, as the sales charge for the electric car may have been brought to life by a big corporate buyer. The Volt rebound - a month after GM temporarily shuttered production of the car - needs to be set against the likely influence played by GE in driving up the Volt sales number. Volt sales in March of 2,289 were 50% higher than December 2011, which had been the vehicle's best month since launch. It's no coincidence, though, that GE began last month...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Cheryl in Fort Wayne, Indiana, where the Indianapolis Colts' flags are at half-mast. CALLER: (chuckles) Hi, Rush. RUSH: Hi. CALLER: Thanks for taking my call. RUSH: You bet. CALLER: I wanted to talk about the crony capitalism from a personal standpoint for myself. My husband was an engineer with Delphi, which is part of GM. And when the bankruptcy was taken care of and the auto bailouts and the whole thing that Obama's so proud of, what most people don't know is what happened to the salaried retirees from Delphi in the whole deal. The union people...