At Town Hall, Congressman Denounces GM Bailout That He Voted For

Democratic Congressman Peter DeFazio spoke at a town hall meeting in August. He criticized the bailout of General Motors and the fact that GM is building a new factory in Mexico despite the fact that “we still own 71% of the company”.

Rep. DeFazio labels the GM bailout as the “Paulson-Bush-Pelosi” bailout that he did not support. This is a clever bit of sleight-of-hand. Although the TARP bill, which was passed under the Bush Administration, included loans to General Motors, it was not the legislation that “bailed GM out” or resulted in the US Treasury as the principal shareholder of the company. That legislation (Auto Industry Financing and Restructuring Act) was passed in July 2009 under the Obama Administration’s leadership and Rep. DeFazio supported it

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