The auto industry lives. Can we admit that government intervention worked?

Washington Post ^ | 8/2/10 | E.J. Dionne Jr.

[Nachum]

Who could have imagined that the bailout of the auto industry, one of the single most unpopular moves by the Obama administration, would become one of its best talking points?

But don't for an instant imagine that the comeback of the nation's rescued car companies, particularly General Motors, will change the way we debate government's role in the economy. When it comes to almost anything the government does, ideology trumps facts, slogans trump reality, and loaded words ("socialism") trump data.

Let there be no mistake: Rescuing GM and Chrysler took political courage, and I want to put in a good word not only for President Obama but also for George W. Bush.

True, Bush's electoral career was over in December 2008 when he extended $17.4 billion of Troubled Assets Relief Program money to keep the companies alive long enough to give Obama a chance to act. Still, it took guts for Bush to decide not to "leave the next president to confront the demise of a major American industry in his first days of office." Yet it was Obama who put in the bulk of the cash -- in all, Bush's input had grown to $25 billion before he left office, while Obama put up an additional $60 billion -- and created the tough restructuring plan.

[Nachum]

"tough restructuring plan"?

Uh, give the company to the unions. Screw the stockholders. Screw the dealerships. Take ownership of 60% of the company. $85 billion spent.... so far.

Um...How much profit did we make again?

Great

[equalitybeforethelaw]

Anything will give the impression it lives with that kind of cash infusion. Too bad they won’t be able to pay it back and nobody in their right mind will ever lend them money again. So, yeah, its fixed alright.

[Yo-Yo]

Uh, give the company to the unions. Screw the stockholders. Screw the dealerships. Take ownership of 60% of the company. $85 billion spent.... so far.

You forgot one: "Screw the bondholders."

[goodnesswins]

Yeah...tell that to all the retirees who had GM Bonds and got screwed.....baawwaahhhhhhhh

[Celerity]

Of COURSE it lives ! It’s subsidized by the government ! It can’t go out of business ! AMTRAK Redux !

If it were ALLOWED to die, then people who used to work the assembly line would go home, and start to build their OWN car design. Those designs would compete in the market place until the best rose to the top, and that one-time assembly worker would be head of his or her OWN car company !

REO stands for “Ransom E Olds” ! That’s not a coincidence !

[Fantasywriter]

May I suggest more coffee? You forgot the ‘barf’. ;)

[Izzy Dunne]

It’s not dead yet, so that constitutes a policy that “works” ??

[Little Ray]

Lesee, the new “exciting” vehicle Government Motors has produced is the “Volt.” Its expense is such that its probably cheaper to buy and operate an SUV than to purchase this boondoggle.

[Anitius Severinus Boethius]

GM survived. So did Ford. Which one is doing better today?

[DJ Frisat]

Hmmmm... which of the former 'Big 3' is having the most success, and which one DID NOT succumb to the gov't takeover?

Which one, EJ, hmmmm?????

[A_Former_Democrat]

“The auto industry lives. Can we admit that government intervention worked?”

No, we can’t . .because it didn’t.

But we can admit you’re an idiot.

[kabar]

The foreign car makers received no bailout money and they survived. GM and Chrysler could have declared bankruptcy and survived.

[agere_contra]

Nationalizing the bulk of America’s auto industry was the SINGLE MOST TOXIC and WASTEFUL thing that that ass-clown Obama has done in office. Except for all the other toxic and waster things, LOL

GM Motors is now the biggest welfare scheme in history. And the Volt is going to be a disaster

Dionne is a demented know-nothing cheerleader.

[yoe]

Did China buy Detroit? Soros in charge of this propaganda also?

[Frantzie]

They are also dumping tons of GM and Chrysler cars on cities, Fed govt, etc. I bet Ford has not sold one vehicles to a city or govt entity.

GM is talking about an IPO this year or next year so the UAW members and O’s cronies will get rich off the assets they stole from bondholders.

[WOBBLY BOB]

Can we admit that government intervention worked?

No.

http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2561839/posts

So the future of General Motors (and the $50 billion taxpayer investment in it) now depends on a vehicle that costs $41,000 but offers the performance and interior space of a $15,000 economy car. The company is moving forward on a second generation of Volts aimed at eliminating the initial model’s considerable shortcomings. (In truth, the first-generation Volt was as good as written off inside G.M., which decided to cut its 2011 production volume to a mere 10,000 units rather than the initial plan for 60,000.) Yet G.M. seemingly has no plan for turning its low-volume “eco-flagship” into a mass-market icon like the Prius.

[Mere Survival]

I know a divorced single woman in her late 50’s, with a bad back, who now works at a shop on her feet all day. She was a bondholder with GM as her major investment and protection for her later years. My understanding is that they really hurt the regular bondholders (traditionally blue chip bondholders are widows and orphan types), while they gave sweetheart deals to the big institutional bondholders. Horrible, horrible, cruel actions, that really underline that this is a government for the elites and is dedicated to hurting working Americans to help the elites.

[Diogenesis]

"Don't interfere with anything in the Constitution. That must be maintained, for it is the only safeguard of our liberties."         Abraham Lincoln
	"We have no government armed in power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Our Constitution was made only for a religious and moral people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other. "         John Adams
“Resistance to tyrants is obedience to God”         Thomas Jefferson
	"The Constitution is not an instrument for the government to restrain the people, it is an instrument for the people to restrain the government - lest it come to dominate our lives and interests."         Patrick Henry
"Public officials should not be chosen if they are lacking in experience, training, proven virtue, and demonstrated wisdom. "         Sam Adams
	“There is scarce a king in a hundred who would not, if he could, follow the example of Pharaoh — get first all the people’s money, then their lands, and then make them and their children servants forever. It will be said that we do not propose to establish kings. I know it. But there is a natural inclination in mankind to kingly government. It sometimes relieves them from aristocratic domination. They had rather have one tyrant than 500. It gives more the appearance of equality among citizens, and that they like. I am apprehensive — therefore — perhaps too apprehensive — that the government of these States may in future times end in a monarchy [not called a monarchy but an executive with monarchial powers]. But this catastrophe, I think, may long be delayed, if in our proposed system we do not sow the seeds of contention, faction and tumult, by making our posts of honor places of profit. If we do, I fear that, though we employ at first a number and not a single person, the number will in time be set aside, it will only nourish the fetus of a king (as the honorable gentleman from Virginia very aptly expressed it), and a king will the sooner be set over us.” -- Benjamin Franklin

[Nachum]

May I suggest more coffee? You forgot the ‘barf’. ;)

I knew there was something I forgot!

[Eric in the Ozarks]

Don’t forget the GM bond holders who were wiped out.