...like the new GM POS all purpose working family vehicle..."
Posted on 04/27/2009 2:37:46 PM PDT by Michael Eden
Game, set, and match to the Statists and the big labor agenda. From this point forward, the government will be deciding what cars are made, and the unions will literally be negotiating with themselves to determine how much they’ll earn making them.
The government was able to buy it's way into total control of the auto industry for only a few billion dollars. A tremendous day for Statism, a dark day indeed for the free market and for individual liberty.
From the Associated Press:
DETROIT – General Motors Corp. could be majority owned by the federal government under a massive restructuring plan laid out Monday that will cut 21,000 U.S. factory jobs by next year and phase out the storied Pontiac brand.This is about as blatant of a case of simultaneously talking out of both sides of one's mouth as there is. The government has no interest in running GM; they just want to be able to fire the company's GM and have the power to decide who is on the board of directors. You've got to give the Obama administration points for sheer chutzpah. And millions of political cuckolds are literally choosing to believe him rather than trusting their own lying eyes.The plan, which includes an offer to swap roughly $27 billion in bond debt for GM stock, would leave current shareholders holding just 1 percent of the century-old company, which is fighting for its life in the worst auto sales climate in 27 years.
GM is living on $15.4 billion in government loans and said Monday in a filing with the U.S. Securities and Exchange Commission that it envisions receiving an additional $11.6 billion....
GM said that it will ask the government to take more than 50 percent of its common stock in exchange for canceling half the government loans to the company as of June 1. The swap would cancel about $10 billion in government debt.
In addition, GM is offering stock to the United Auto Workers for at least 50 percent of the $20 billion the company must pay into a union run trust that will take over retiree health care expenses starting next year.
If both are successful, the government and UAW health care trust would own 89 percent of GM stock, with the government holding more than a 50 percent stake, CEO Fritz Henderson said in a news conference at GM’s Detroit headquarters.
Henderson said that although the government would own a majority of GM’s outstanding common shares, the Treasury “hasn’t demonstrated interest in running the company,” but would have someone on the board looking out for the taxpayers’ interest. The task force has directed current board chairman Kent Kresa to replace several board members.
There's a story entitled, "The Devil and Daniel Webster" that describes what can happen when one foolishly makes a deal with the devil. Unfortunately, the Jabez Stone stand-in (GM) won't have any Daniel Websters to confound Mr Scratch (brilliantly depicted by Barrack Hussein). The lesson of this story is that it's bad enough to do a deal with the devil; but never, NEVER, NEVER do a deal with the government. You can't win, and you won't even be able to lose with dignity.
“The shareholders, the VEBA (health care trust) and the government would want to have a someone on the board of directors,” he said.The dealer closings are not included in the job loss numbers sited at the beginning of this article, which will easily add well over one hundred thousand more jobs to the low-ball total cited at the beginning of the article.Deals with the UAW and the Treasury have yet to be finalized, he said.
The struggling automaker said it will offer 225 shares of common stock for every $1,000 in notes held by bondholders as part of a debt-for-equity swap. Henderson said the objective is to reduce GM’s $27 billion of outstanding public debt by about $24 billion. The company estimates that after the exchange, bondholders would own 10 percent of the company.
That would leave current common stockholders with only 1 percent, GM said. Still, GM shares rose 34 cents, or 21 percent, to $2.03 in midday trading.
The plans, if successful, would reduce GM’s debt by $44 billion from the present figure of about $62.4 billion.
“We would be substantially less-leveraged as a company,” Henderson said.
Kip Penniman Jr., an analyst with KDP Investment Advisors Inc., predicted the exchange offer would fail and GM will file for bankruptcy....
The company also said it plans to reduce its dealership ranks by 42 percent from 2008 to 2010, cutting them from 6,246 to 3,605. When asked how GM would accomplish that, Henderson would say only that the company would be making offers to the dealers in the coming weeks.
Mark LaNeve, vice president of North American sales and marketing, said a big chunk of the dealership reduction — about 450 — would come with the elimination or sale of Saturn, Hummer and Saab. GM would then look to end relationships with dealers that do only a small volume of business with GM, and then move on to other dealers, he said....
The same government that couldn't run a cafeteria without going millions of dollars into the red; the same government that still can't run a successful post office in spite of the numerous successful businesses that have sprung up all around it; the same government whose model for successful customer service is the Department of Motor Vehicles, is going to be teaming up with the very unions who ran the auto manufacturing industry out of business in the first place to build cars.
The auto industry today; the oil industry tomorrow. We don't need oil anyway. Just ask Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid: It's devil-juice, for sure.
I wrote an article around a youtube video entitled, "The Car That Will Save The Auto Industry (And The Planet!)." It's not a joke any more, given that we elected a bunch of totalitarian Statists to run our country.
Ever heard of the Soviet government-produced Lada? You haven't? Don't worry; you'll be getting a chance to own its American equivalent in just a few years.
...like the new GM POS all purpose working family vehicle..."
Of Course Boycott... That became obvious when they took the first money. Even if just out of self preservation; their cars will be junk and you will not want to own one at 1/2 the price.
gim should let oprah give away their remaining stock of pontiacs.
/s
I call it communism, and no, I didn’t vote for it either.
Its been a silent coup; but after winning the Cold War, we’ve turned over the reins of our government to the reds...
Although it is true that we keep our real treasures in Heaven, and not on Earth (where moth and rust doth corrupt, and thieves break in and steal) ... It still sucks when you’ve been robbed.
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Well, let’s see:
Obama’s father was a Kenyan Marxist, and his mother also avowedly Marxist. As a young boy, Obama was “mentored” by an openly communist father-figure (whose name eludes me). He was also mentored by figures such as Saul Alinsky and William Ayers. He has no “American DNA”; he grew up in a Muslim country.
And now he’s embracing openly Marxist and/or fascist economic policies (while denying that it’s socialism).
Boycott General Motors cars. If you think that government run schools and hospitals are disasters, why would anyone ever think that cars produced by the government would be worth it?
“Now the other automakers are faced with having to pay taxes to fund their competition.”
+1! Well, this is what I have railed against from the start this whole stupid disaster of the federal government helping out the Big 3.
This violates the equal protection clause of the constitution. Here we have the federal government actively disadvantaging American citizens who work for the non-favored companies. Could this be considered treasonous?
This violates the equal protection clause of the constitution. Here we have the federal government actively disadvantaging American citizens who work for the non-favored companies. Could this be considered treasonous?
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Liberals are like a fifth column who want to attack and erode our country from within.
They have no loyalty to the America created by our founding fathers. They would see it abolished and something else instituted in its place.
They don’t mind the Constitution - as long as THEY get to RE-interpret everything that it stands for and means.
That's exactly what I thought when I saw those Yugo pics upthread. How the hell is GovMot going to sell junk cars when Honda and Toyota are building Camrys, Pilots, Avalons and so forth?
The answer is that it can't - unless the rules are changed.
Boycott General Motors cars. If you think that government run schools and hospitals are disasters, why would anyone ever think that cars produced by the government would be worth it?
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At least a dozen comments said in effect, “Boycott GM cars.” “Don’t buy GM.” “I won’t buy another GM car.”
And you are completely right. The Japanese - who are pursuing free market competition, are now officially FAR more “American” than the American auto industry under Obama.
Don’t let Obama and his ilk get away with this: punish them. Boycott them. Don’t buy their crap.
Making cars has long been job 5 or 6 at GM. It's a pension company that makes cars on the side, and has been for years.
So now we will be paying these workers to build cars no one wants, the unions will donate millions of OUR $$$ to the democratic party and we are on the hook for ALL of it????
OMG ... we really ARE going socialist.
So, when does this revolution start?
I’ve owned 6 cars in my lifetime, everyone of them was American.
I’ll never buy from a UAW or Government owned company though.
Oh, yeah. The government is thoroughly socialist now. The media has been socialist for years. And the American people are either too gullible or just too stupid to understand what that means.
Case in point: two polls.
Poll 1) Global warming is at the very bottom (20th) out of 20 issues. People don’t believe in global warming. That’s good.
Poll 2) Over half of Americans are in favor of Obama’s cap-and-trade - which would impose a suicidal tax on our energy and our economy. Which is utterly insane.
WTH?
The ability to think is just gone.
A poem by T.S. Elliot:
this is how the world ends
this is how the world ends
this is how the world ends
not with a bang but a whimper
The Uaw will lose either through giving themselves benefits and packages or through a boycott by Americans of their Donkey cars.
I will not buy from a 80% government/union owned communist tractor factory.
I can! That's the HOPE & CHANGE we heard so much about. Joe the Plumber was right!
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