Doug,
The loan was under Obama's jurisdiction. Please don't get me wrong here. If Bush was still president (of course I know that he could not be), I think that he probably would have given GM a loan too. Personally I think that both have sold our children down the river with the mighty help of congress. They are all to blame. But to give 25% of the company to the union....that is just wrong. If they wanted to purchase the company like anyone else, they could have. Oh yeah. Those that did through stocks got the shaft.
Thanks for the correction, Tom!
I'm still a bit confused...if this loan was made under Obama's jurisdiction, how could it be related to getting him INTO the presidency, as you stated:
"This whole event stinks of payback to the unions help to get Obama into the presidency."
Did Obama run for president promising during the campaign to bail GM out and give 1/4 of the company to the unions to get the union vote? I don't remember that, either...things I remember Obama promising were like these:
Get our combat troops out of Iraq
Get a universal health care package passed
Eliminate "Don't ask, Don't tell"
Limit our time of engagement in Afghanistan
I remember lots of stuff like that, but don't remember him promising to bail GM out and give part of the company to the union during the campaign.
Is Alzheimer's setting in? I realize I am older than aluminum foil...maybe my brain tissue is hardening?
What I do recall is that Gee-Dub bailed out Wall Street and the banking industry and in his infinite wisdom failed to make sure there were any
requirements that the recipients pay any of the money back, resulting in the banking/investment industries granting their executives huge bonuses for acquiring the funds with no requirement of repayment, and allowing the ink on the ledgers of the banks/stock brokerages to turn from red to black while the middle class/main street still had no access to the funds. I recall that very clearly.
Chrysler and GM have risen from the ashes...perhaps they have not repaid all the money, but I suspect they have paid some if not most of it back. Where is the money Gee-Dub gave away?
I realize that this issue is a bit OT, and my apologies to LB for inducing the thread drift, but in my opinion this whole governmental fiasco is all tied together as part of the recession that started in 2007...why are we grousing about the auto industry if not the banking/investment industry, who seem to be the larger transgressors?
Again, Tom, I sincerely thank you for your succinct responses...help this addle-brained old schoolteacher clear the fog and understand the issue and sequence of events better, please...
Cheers!
Doug