On Monday, the Treasury Department announced that the federal government had, no doubt to great the relief of General Motors management, sold its remaining shares of GM stock.
According to a 2009 CNN Money story on the GM bailout, “The Obama administration will commit another $30 billion on top of the $19.4 billion it has already given GM to cover its losses and fund its operations.”
The Treasury press release says that “Treasury has recouped a total of $39 billion from the original GM investment.”
In other words, this “investment” cost taxpayers just over $10 billion which represents, for purposes of comparison, the current annual budget of the FDA, the SEC, and the Border Patrol combined. (Alternatively, it represents the current annual budget of the US Coast Guard.)
After repeated violations of the spirit and letter of bankruptcy law in order to enrich the Obama administration’s union supporters, taxpayers have finally been left holding the bag (a bag, as Ben Stein points out, filled with the governmental equivalent of dog excrement.)
So here’s the question for you, dear conservative and libertarian readers: Would you now consider buying a GM vehicle if its prior government ownership was a negative factor for you in the past?
[First published at the American Spectator.]
Ross Kaminsky is the morning show host on 630 KHOW in Denver and a past member of Heartland’s Board of Directors.
