Anonymous wrote:We saved an industry. Money well spent. GM had 2011 revenues of $150 billion and a profit of $7.6 billion. Do you have a cheaper way to fill that hole? Any idea of how many jobs are involved in making $150 billion?

We put $85 billion into AIG -- not to build anything, just to prevent catastrophe. We gave hundreds of billions in tax cuts which provided zero stimulus.

Lastly, let's call the criticism what it is: politics. We spent $18.6 billion to bail out the airline industry under Bush. You don't hear a bunch of armchair quarterbacks second guessing that. The auto bailout is only criticized because a Democrat did it.

+1

Looked at two GM cars yesterday. One was a Cadillac made in Mexico - 47% domestic content. Another was a Chevrolet Sonic made in Michigan with about 48% domestic content. So thank you Obama for bailing out a company that is shipping jobs and dollars out of the US as fast as they can and sticking us with the bill.

Anonymous wrote:
We saved an industry. Money well spent. GM had 2011 revenues of $150 billion and a profit of $7.6 billion. Do you have a cheaper way to fill that hole? Any idea of how many jobs are involved in making $150 billion?

We put $85 billion into AIG -- not to build anything, just to prevent catastrophe. We gave hundreds of billions in tax cuts which provided zero stimulus.

Lastly, let's call the criticism what it is: politics. We spent $18.6 billion to bail out the airline industry under Bush. You don't hear a bunch of armchair quarterbacks second guessing that. The auto bailout is only criticized because a Democrat did it.

Do you drive an American car?

New poster but I agree with everything PP said, and I have only ever owned American cars - bought my third last year.

Another way to think about it: what if the equivalent of Pearl Harbor happened again tomorrow? And we had listened to Mitt Romney who said to let Detroit go bankrupt? Our entire heavy manufacturing sector would be in ruins and it would take us that much longer to ramp it back up to face that crisis.

We own one American car and one German car. I would trade my German car for a caddy in a heartbeat.

A lot of the AIG money went overseas. The republican would have more traction on the auto industry bailout if they said the same things about the financial industry bailout. You really want to talk about bonuses unearned

Anonymous wrote:We saved an industry. Money well spent. GM had 2011 revenues of $150 billion and a profit of $7.6 billion. Do you have a cheaper way to fill that hole? Any idea of how many jobs are involved in making $150 billion?

We put $85 billion into AIG -- not to build anything, just to prevent catastrophe. We gave hundreds of billions in tax cuts which provided zero stimulus.

Lastly, let's call the criticism what it is: politics. We spent $18.6 billion to bail out the airline industry under Bush. You don't hear a bunch of armchair quarterbacks second guessing that. The auto bailout is only criticized because a Democrat did it.

Do you drive an American car?

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We saved an industry. Money well spent. GM had 2011 revenues of $150 billion and a profit of $7.6 billion. Do you have a cheaper way to fill that hole? Any idea of how many jobs are involved in making $150 billion?

We put $85 billion into AIG -- not to build anything, just to prevent catastrophe. We gave hundreds of billions in tax cuts which provided zero stimulus.

Lastly, let's call the criticism what it is: politics. We spent $18.6 billion to bail out the airline industry under Bush. You don't hear a bunch of armchair quarterbacks second guessing that. The auto bailout is only criticized because a Democrat did it.

Many of those jobs are overseas. Less that 1/2 of GM's jobs are in the US. Other than Canada, who else helped bail them out. GM also received billions in tax breaks because the bankruptcy laws were skirted in their case. That money should also be seen as part of the bailout.

I don't know what tax break you are talking about. Bankrupt companies generally don't end up paying taxes unless they are brought out of bankruptcy.

And sure they have employees all over the world. But they also have dealerships, parts suppliers, and more who depend upon the company for the living. Those jobs were on the chopping block, too.

Then what is the point of capitalism if GM and the UAW made bad decisions for 35 years and the government has to bail them out. Should we also bail out Sears? Should we have bailed out Woolworth or Studebaker. GM is now a smaller version of the same dysfunctional culture.

Capitalism's answer to that is bankruptcy. It wipes out the shareholders, punishing the owners for bad decisions. And then as is most often the case, someone comes around and buys the assets out of bankruptcy.

If you think this is an unwise investment for the government, I get that. But the idea that it is a failure of capitalism to buy assets out of bankruptcy, insufficiently punishing bad decisions, well that's ridiculous. If you really believe that, you sure can't vote for a hedge fund manager.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We saved an industry. Money well spent. GM had 2011 revenues of $150 billion and a profit of $7.6 billion. Do you have a cheaper way to fill that hole? Any idea of how many jobs are involved in making $150 billion?

We put $85 billion into AIG -- not to build anything, just to prevent catastrophe. We gave hundreds of billions in tax cuts which provided zero stimulus.

Lastly, let's call the criticism what it is: politics. We spent $18.6 billion to bail out the airline industry under Bush. You don't hear a bunch of armchair quarterbacks second guessing that. The auto bailout is only criticized because a Democrat did it.

Many of those jobs are overseas. Less that 1/2 of GM's jobs are in the US. Other than Canada, who else helped bail them out. GM also received billions in tax breaks because the bankruptcy laws were skirted in their case. That money should also be seen as part of the bailout.

I don't know what tax break you are talking about. Bankrupt companies generally don't end up paying taxes unless they are brought out of bankruptcy.

And sure they have employees all over the world. But they also have dealerships, parts suppliers, and more who depend upon the company for the living. Those jobs were on the chopping block, too.

Then what is the point of capitalism if GM and the UAW made bad decisions for 35 years and the government has to bail them out. Should we also bail out Sears? Should we have bailed out Woolworth or Studebaker. GM is now a smaller version of the same dysfunctional culture.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We saved an industry. Money well spent. GM had 2011 revenues of $150 billion and a profit of $7.6 billion. Do you have a cheaper way to fill that hole? Any idea of how many jobs are involved in making $150 billion?

We put $85 billion into AIG -- not to build anything, just to prevent catastrophe. We gave hundreds of billions in tax cuts which provided zero stimulus.

Lastly, let's call the criticism what it is: politics. We spent $18.6 billion to bail out the airline industry under Bush. You don't hear a bunch of armchair quarterbacks second guessing that. The auto bailout is only criticized because a Democrat did it.

Many of those jobs are overseas. Less that 1/2 of GM's jobs are in the US. Other than Canada, who else helped bail them out. GM also received billions in tax breaks because the bankruptcy laws were skirted in their case. That money should also be seen as part of the bailout.

I don't know what tax break you are talking about. Bankrupt companies generally don't end up paying taxes unless they are brought out of bankruptcy.

And sure they have employees all over the world. But they also have dealerships, parts suppliers, and more who depend upon the company for the living. Those jobs were on the chopping block, too.

This tax break.
http://money.cnn.com/2011/02/23/news/companies/gm_bailout/index.htm

BTW its funny to hear in 2009 that GM is impossibly bloated by union labor and then in 2022 the same people argue that not enough jobs were ever in the US to begin with. Pick a position and stick with it.

Anonymous wrote:

Anonymous wrote:We saved an industry. Money well spent. GM had 2011 revenues of $150 billion and a profit of $7.6 billion. Do you have a cheaper way to fill that hole? Any idea of how many jobs are involved in making $150 billion?

We put $85 billion into AIG -- not to build anything, just to prevent catastrophe. We gave hundreds of billions in tax cuts which provided zero stimulus.

Lastly, let's call the criticism what it is: politics. We spent $18.6 billion to bail out the airline industry under Bush. You don't hear a bunch of armchair quarterbacks second guessing that. The auto bailout is only criticized because a Democrat did it.

Many of those jobs are overseas. Less that 1/2 of GM's jobs are in the US. Other than Canada, who else helped bail them out. GM also received billions in tax breaks because the bankruptcy laws were skirted in their case. That money should also be seen as part of the bailout.

I don't know what tax break you are talking about. Bankrupt companies generally don't end up paying taxes unless they are brought out of bankruptcy.

And sure they have employees all over the world. But they also have dealerships, parts suppliers, and more who depend upon the company for the living. Those jobs were on the chopping block, too.

Anonymous wrote:We saved an industry. Money well spent. GM had 2011 revenues of $150 billion and a profit of $7.6 billion. Do you have a cheaper way to fill that hole? Any idea of how many jobs are involved in making $150 billion?

We put $85 billion into AIG -- not to build anything, just to prevent catastrophe. We gave hundreds of billions in tax cuts which provided zero stimulus.

Lastly, let's call the criticism what it is: politics. We spent $18.6 billion to bail out the airline industry under Bush. You don't hear a bunch of armchair quarterbacks second guessing that. The auto bailout is only criticized because a Democrat did it.

Many of those jobs are overseas. Less that 1/2 of GM's jobs are in the US. Other than Canada, who else helped bail them out. GM also received billions in tax breaks because the bankruptcy laws were skirted in their case. That money should also be seen as part of the bailout.

Anonymous wrote:We saved an industry. Money well spent. GM had 2011 revenues of $150 billion and a profit of $7.6 billion. Do you have a cheaper way to fill that hole? Any idea of how many jobs are involved in making $150 billion?

We put $85 billion into AIG -- not to build anything, just to prevent catastrophe. We gave hundreds of billions in tax cuts which provided zero stimulus.

Lastly, let's call the criticism what it is: politics. We spent $18.6 billion to bail out the airline industry under Bush. You don't hear a bunch of armchair quarterbacks second guessing that. The auto bailout is only criticized because a Democrat did it.

Socialism for corporations and the rich, cut-throat capitalism for everyone else folks.

We saved an industry. Money well spent. GM had 2011 revenues of $150 billion and a profit of $7.6 billion. Do you have a cheaper way to fill that hole? Any idea of how many jobs are involved in making $150 billion?

We put $85 billion into AIG -- not to build anything, just to prevent catastrophe. We gave hundreds of billions in tax cuts which provided zero stimulus.

Lastly, let's call the criticism what it is: politics. We spent $18.6 billion to bail out the airline industry under Bush. You don't hear a bunch of armchair quarterbacks second guessing that. The auto bailout is only criticized because a Democrat did it.

Obama is making this a key success story of his administration. I understand that if it had not been done, we would have been in 1931 again with the entire auto supplier supply chain decimated - meaning no GM, Ford, Chrysler, Toyota, Honda, Nissan, etc. production.

But why was it set up so that the American taxpayer will be out $18 billion from GM alone? I don't really feel sorry for the stock and bondholders who lost money because anyone buying into GM when they were losing billions and market share was taking a big risk. It just rankles me that the executives and UAW workers are getting bonuses yet we are on the hook! Screw GM - I will never touch one of their cars again.