Uncle Sam To GM: All I Got Is $25 Billion
Will GM spend $25 billion tabbed for fuel efficient vehicles on more trucks instead? What do you think?
After declaring Wall Street giants like AIG and his old company Goldman Sachs ‘Too big to fail,’ Hank Paulson has apparently decided that General Motors - one of the biggest corporations on the planet, which employees 200,000 and provides health care and pensions to a million Americans - is small enough to go under.
But don’t feel too sorry for the behemoth multinational. It looks like Uncle Sam has found a way to toss a couple dozen billion its way after all:
Instead of providing new assistance, the Treasury Department told G.M. on Friday, the Bush administration will now shift its focus to speeding up the $25 billion loan program for fuel-efficient vehicles approved by Congress in September and administered by the Energy Department.
So $25 billion that was supposed to help the shortsighted, SUV-addicted Big Three build fuel efficient cars will now be turned into one big taxpayer funded slush fund to keep them afloat. It’s only fair after all. Wall Street wrecked itself with AAA-rated subprime mortgage bonds and it got $700 billion. Why should Detroit have to pay for its bad decisions? But wait a sec. Didn’t we just read something about lower gas prices sending automakers into pick-up truck relapse?
Ford Motor Co. is predicting pickup truck sales will bounce back enough for it to add 1,000 workers to its Dearborn F-150 factory in January.
If gas prices stay low, is Uncle Sam really gullible enough to think that all that cash will go towards hybrids and fuel cells? You might as well believe that banks would spend all of their bailout money on staying solvent and giving out loans again instead of things like dividends, bonuses, and acquisitions. Imagine that!
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