The transformation of General Motors (GM) to Government Motors (GM) has cost a lot of Americans a lot of money.
Many, many of them under questionable and in fact illegal circumstances.
Let us begin with the $50 billion ‘We the People’ were forced to “invest” in General Motors – including a $30 billion Barack Obama bump so as to give his Administration greater sway in how things would subsequently go down.
We were originally told – by Obama himself – that we would make money on the bailout. Now we’re told we’ll lose somewhere between $11 and $14 billion (and given the stock price’s long, slow slide, maybe even more).
And about which we were lied to by the Administration. Which said this titanic loss of coin is less than they were expecting – just seven months after Obama his own self said we’d turn a profit.
Then there was the 2009 GM bankruptcy filing (which we were told our $50 billion would forestall – oops).
Through which the Obama Administration’s new toy car company eviscerated existing law to benefit their union, campaign-funding cronies at the illegal expense of GM bond holders – who should have by law received preferred treatment.
The ripped off didn’t take too kindly to being the Administration’s latest dupes:
We believe the offer to be a blatant disregard of fairness for the bondholders who have funded this company and amounts to using taxpayer money to show political favoritism of one creditor over another….
“What they’ve offered us is ridiculous,” said Chris Crowe, 50, a Denver, Colorado-based home inspector at an event organized for small bondholders in this Detroit suburb. “I know there are only so many pieces of pie, but they’re giving us crumbs.”…
(S)aid retiree (and GM bond holder) Dennis Buchholtz,… “We have invested twice as much as the government and we’ll only get a fifth of what the government will.“
Well that seems fair.
“I’m equally as mad at GM as at the government because GM has done nothing more than give the UAW (United Auto Workers union) and the government what they want,” said retiree (and GM bond holder) John Milne….
Government Motors giving the government and their union campaign suppliers what they want, and ripping off the rest of us. Shocker.
Now we get word that Government Motors is gearing up to rip off GM warranty holders. Specifically (at least for now) those holding on the 2007 and 2008 Chevy Impala.
Let us flashback to GM Bailout Time: Obama his own self promised Americans that were GM unable to make good on their warranties, the government would.
From one of his famous problem-solving speeches:
“Let me say this as plainly as I can. If you buy a car from Chrysler or General Motors, you will be able to get your car serviced and repaired just like always.
Your warranty will be safe. In fact, it will be safer than it has ever been. Because starting today, the United States will stand behind your warranty.”
When Obama asserts plainness or clarity – prepare for the worst kind of obfuscation.
GM is now trying to claim that their bankruptcy – which they used to illegally rip of bondholders – also allows them to rip off those who are seeking to have their GM cars repaired as per their written guarantees.
(I)n a recent filing with the U.S. District Court in Detroit, GM noted that the cars were made by its predecessor General Motors Corp, now called Motors Liquidation Co or “Old GM,” before its 2009 bankruptcy and federal bailout.
The current company, called “New GM,” said it did not assume responsibility under the reorganization to fix the Impala problem, but only to make repairs “subject to conditions and limitations” in express written warranties. In essence, the automaker said, Trusky sued the wrong entity.
“New GM’s warranty obligations for vehicles sold by Old GM are limited to the express terms and conditions in the Old GM written warranties on a going-forward basis,” wrote Benjamin Jeffers, a lawyer for GM. “New GM did not assume responsibility for Old GM’s design choices, conduct, or alleged breaches of liability under the warranty.“
So all Obama has to do is change his name, and he’s not responsible for the terrible economy he’s fostered? Same guy, same failed policies, different name – so vote for him again in 2012.
Is this a set-up? Is GM looking to duck their responsibility – so as to foist the bill upon We the People, as per Obama’s “plain” promise?
Or is there something even worse occurring?
Wasn’t GM “too big to fail” – meaning (we were told) we had to bail them out to make sure they kept their promises to the American people?
Not just to their employees, but to all those parts manufacturers and car dealers – everyone who was so intertwined with the auto monolith that they too would go down were GM to do so?
And weren’t we told over and over again that we needed to bailout GM because we had to make good on their contracts with the auto unions – you know, the ones that were illegally over-rewarded in the bankruptcy?
In fact, hasn’t that been a primary defense of the back-breaking status quo in government budget fights all over the country – Wisconsin, Ohio, Illinois and elsewhere?
That these governments have signed sacrosanct contracts with their public sector union cronies – and they must be maintained and adhered to, no matter how insolvent it leaves their states?
Well, these GM car owners have contracts too. But these are “plainly” deemed less sacrosanct.
Because these folks made the same fatal mistake as did GM bondholders (and select GM car dealers) – they didn’t contribute huge coin and political field work to Democrats.
Which of course the unions always do.
So on Obama’s Animal Farm, all contracts are equal, but some are more equal than others.
Thusly is the newest round of Government Motors rip offs set to commence.