Barack Obama,  General Motors

General Motors Files for Bankruptcy – America Left Holding the Bag

Government-Motors

General Motors has indeed become Government Motors as the automobile manufacturer files for bankruptcy protection today.

General Motors filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection Monday as part of the Obama administration’s plan to shrink the automaker to a sustainable size and give a majority ownership stake to the federal government.

GM’s bankruptcy filing is the fourth-largest in U.S. history and the largest for an industrial company. The company said it has $172.81 billion in debt and $82.29 billion in assets.

As it reorganizes, the fallen icon of American industrial might will rely on $30 billion of additional financial assistance from the Treasury Department and $9.5 billion from Canada. That’s on top of about $20 billion in taxpayer money GM already has received in the form of low-interest loans.

GM will follow a similar course taken by smaller rival Chrysler LLC, which filed for Chapter 11 protection in April. A judge gave Chrysler approval to sell most of its assets to Italy’s Fiat, moving the U.S. automaker closer to a quick exit from court protection, possibly this week.

The plan is for the federal government to take a 60 percent ownership stake in the new GM. The Canadian government would take 12.5 percent, with the United Auto Workers getting a 17.5 percent share and unsecured bondholders receiving 10 percent. Existing GM shareholders are expected to be wiped out.

And, American taxpayers get left holding the bag to bail out, yet again, General Motors, I mean Government Motors.

What a waste!

Back in December, in an economy far, far away, then-CEO Rick Wagoner tossed out the scary cost to taxpayers of $100 billion if General Motors wasn’t saved by the government. Well, GM was saved in December and again in March, and as early as today the feds will rescue it a third time in a prepackaged bankruptcy that is already costing at least $50 billion, and that’s for starters. Welcome to Obama Motors, and what is likely to be a long, expensive and unhappy exercise in political car making.

Flap asks what is the exit strategy of the federal government for Government Motors? How much more will Americans be forced to pay to prop up the United Auto Workers and this failed company?

This entire GM bailout has been a calculated political manipulation of the marketplace by the Obama Administration. Obama interventions includes help for the unions, trade protectionism and help for the Michigan economy that Obama needs for re-election in 2012.

How much more will Americans have to cough up?


Technorati Tags: ,

2 Comments

  • Ling

    Sure he has a plan to get out of Iraq. Now all he has to do is figure out how to get out of GM. No doubt they’ll be moving the goalposts as time goes by. Right now it’s all about a temporary fix. Couple of months down the line, the expected future profitability will vanish, and it’ll all be about how to cut and run. There won’t be any easy solutions, and the US govt will be stuck in the quagmire of GM for years and years. Maybe even leave it to the next President to handle.