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The U.S. government ended up losing $10.5 billion US on its bailout of General Motors, but still says the alternative would have been much worse. Treasury Secretary Jacob Lew announced Monday that the government sold its remaining shares in the Detroit automaker. The government received 912 million GM shares, or a 60.8 per cent stake in the automaker, in exchange for a $49.5 billion bailout during the financial crisis in 2008 and 2009. It recovered $39 billion of the money, meaning taxpayers came up more than $10 billion short.

Democrats in the Senate on Thursday held a recess hearing covering a taxpayer bailout of union pensions and a plan to seize private 401(k) plans to more "fairly" distribute taxpayer-funded pensions to everyone. Sen. Tom Harkin (D-Iowa), Chairman of the Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee heard from hand-picked witnesses advocating the infamous "Guaranteed Retirement Account" (GRA) authored by Theresa Guilarducci. (You can find the blistering interview with Guilarducci by radio talk show host Mark Levin in 2007 at the link). In a nutshell, under the GRA system government would seize private 401(k) accounts, setting up an additional 5%...

New rules expected from the Financial Accounting Standards Board (FASB) are causing massive heartburn for Big Labor and fueling a new backroom push in Congress for a taxpayer bailout of underwater union pensions. With nine Republican co-sponsors of the House bill, Big Labor is pushing for passage during a lame duck session after the November elections. ........ A bill introduced by Sen. Bob Casey (D-Penn.), and a bill from Rep. Earl Pomeroy (D-N.D.) in the House, would for the first time put taxpayers on the hook for these underwater union pension plans. ........ Moody’s Investors Service estimates a whopping $167...

Why Democrats are Pushing the $165 Billion Union Pension Bailout by LaborUnionReport Somewhere lurking in the hot, putrid halls of Congress this summer is a union bailout bill of epic proportions and long-term ramifications. Whether or not Democrats can ultimately push it (or something like it) into passage is yet to be determined. However, with rumors that Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL) signed on as a co-sponsor on Thursday, it would appear that the union bailout is quietly creeping along. If it passes, though, its ramifications surpass the mere $165 billion-plus price tag, as it will influence the political landscape for...

The network morning and evening news shows have all but ignored President Obama's Saturday letter to congressional leaders asking for $50 billion in additional spending to prevent the "massive layoffs of teachers, police, and firefighters." Only Sunday's Good Morning America on ABC has covered the President's request so far. The chief executive's June 12 letter to Speaker Nancy Pelosi, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell, and House Minority Leader John Boehner urged "swift action" on the multi-billion dollar proposal to prevent the public sector layoffs and "give our nation's businesses added impetus to hire and grow."

Obama administration calls for emergency education spending Posted: May 26th, 2010 01:07 PM ET From CNN Radio's Dick Uliano Arne Duncan is calling for emergency education spending. Arne Duncan is calling for emergency education spending. Washington (CNN) - Education Secretary Arne Duncan says President Obama "absolutely supports" a congressional proposal for $23 billion in emergency education spending in order to stave off teacher layoffs and cancellation of summer classes. Duncan told CNN Wednesday that the emergency spending request is needed to head off "an education catastrophe, " in which as many as 300-thousand teachers across the country could be laid...

We've mentioned it here and there in the past, but one of the under reported stories about unions today is that few of them have fully funded pension plans and worse, many are in dire trouble. The Wall Street Journal reminds us all of the mess that union pensions are in with a July 27 piece headlined, "Union Pensions in the Red ." The WSJ reports on the unusual actions of the Service Employees International Union (SEIU), one of the most powerful unions in America, as it tries to fix its pension funds. Read the rest at Publiusforum.com...

Chapter 11 would better preserve the valuable parts of the company than an ad hoc bailout. General Motors is a once-great company caught in a web of relationships designed for another era. It should not be fed while still caught, because that will leave it trapped until we get tired of feeding it. Then it will die. The only possibility of saving it is to take the risk of cutting it free. In other words, GM should be allowed to go bankrupt. AP Consider the costs of tackling GM's problems with some kind of bailout plan. After 42 years...