The Nationalization of GM and Chrysler

President Barack Obama has never managed or owned a business in his life.  He has never worked in a for-profit situation of any kind — not even a hot dog stand — but he is now starting at the top by taking over the operation of GM and Chrysler. Subsections for related topics include: Dealergate Cash for Clunkers The latest: GM reaches deal to sell Hummer brand.  Hummer, the off-road vehicle that once epitomized America's love for hulking trucks, is now in the hands of a Chinese heavy equipment maker. 20 More Questions for Barack Obama.  [#6]  Your administration has been fond of saying that you've "created or saved" jobs.  Aren't those numbers made-up and completely unverifiable?  [#7]  When do you anticipate having the government completely out of GM and Chrysler?  [#8]  Doesn't the special treatment that unions have gotten in the bailout of GM and Chrysler smack of favoritism and political corruption? If Obama Had Told Us Before His Election.  If Barack Obama had campaigned on what he has actually done in his first 300 days in office, would he have been elected? ... If Obama had told us he would take over the automobile industry faster than any socialist dictator ever nationalized an industry, fire the CEO of General Motors and replace him with a Democratic Party campaign contributor, would Obama have been elected?  If Obama had campaigned on closing down thousands of profitable car dealers, nearly all Republicans, would we have believed that this vindictive financial retaliation against those who didn't vote for Obama could happen in America? Government Motors.  Twenty-five years ago President Reagan told auto workers in Orion, Michigan, "You've demonstrated when the chips are down, what people can do working together freely, rather than at the dictates of some central planner or bureaucratic mandate of government.  I happen to believe the last thing your industry needs is the federal government bringing in outsiders to tell you how to run a business."  Fast-forward to 2009:  President Obama fires GM chief Rick Wagoner, the company files for bankruptcy, a government-appointed auto task force calls the shots, and the federal government now owns 61 percent of the new GM. Congressional Report Questions Legality of GM and Chrysler Bailouts.  A report issued by the Congressional Oversight Panel (COP) tasked with overseeing the implementation of the 2008 Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) questions whether the Bush and Obama administrations had the legal authority to use TARP funds to bail out General Motors and Chrysler. Obama's revenge against GM:  Obama must have real, ingrained grandiosity, the kind that is anchored deep in the soul.  He goes 'way beyond the usual high-fallutin' rhetoric from presidential speech writers -- because he has just fired the President and CEO of General Motors, something no previous president, including FDR or JFK, would ever have imagined doing.  That's not rhetoric, and it isn't just show.  It's a political gamble unprecedented in American history, a throw of the dice so breath-taking that the press, the pundits and the voters haven't yet been able to take it in. Another Day, Another Scary Nomination.  As usual, President Barack Obama is multi-tasking the dismantling of the American system on so many fronts that not all of the outrages can be properly monitored.  So while you should be mortified by his dictatorial power grab with General Motors, please don't miss his recent nomination of former Yale Law School Dean Harold Koh as legal adviser for the State Department. Would you buy a used car from this man?  Nobody is buying stock in the Ameri can auto companies.  Except, that is, for President Obama.  And he just bought a couple of the world's largest automakers.  With your money, naturally. Don Barack.  When the Godfather helps you out, you owe the Godfather.  And you'd better comply when the favor is called in.  That appears to be the model the Obama administration is following when it comes to companies that accept federal bailout money — and, in one case, the "favors" owed are being called in.  General Motors accepted $9.4 billion dollars in bailout money, and has a request pending for another $16.6 billion.  The latter hasn't been granted, but we now see some indication of the unwritten price for those loans. We Have Chapter 11 for a Reason.  Our Beltway sans-culottes are tasting blood.  First the people's representatives took their tar and torches to American International Group's bonus payments.  Now the president has dropped the guillotine on the chairman and CEO of General Motors.  The irony, of course, is that far from signaling an end to federal dollars for a failing industry, the high-profile firing of Rick Wagoner paves the way for more aid down the road. Obama takes over General Motors.  Of all the economic teams beavering away in Washington, any ranking of the least likely to produce credible results would have put the Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry high on the list.  Headed by a former journalist turned investment whiz, the task force also includes a union industrial strategist, three climate change experts, a smattering of economists and a former legislative assistant to Hillary Clinton.  None knew anything about the auto industry before their appointments on Feb. 20, suggesting the task force was destined to become a central planning nightmare, ground down by its own ignorance and the bureaucratic futility of it all. No Nominee Yet for Secretary of Rustproofing.  The White House was aiming high with yesterday's announcement that President Obama was pretty much becoming CEO of the American automotive industry.  Minutes before the president's arrival in the Grand Foyer of the White House, a technician in the back of the room tested the teleprompter for Obama's speech. ... "If you buy a car from Chrysler or General Motors, you will be able to get your car serviced and repaired, just like always," the president promised yesterday morning from the executive mansion.  And that's not all, folks!  "Your warranty will be safe," the salesman in chief went on. The Obama Autoworks.  Responding to their plea for $21.6 billion more in taxpayer cash, President Obama yesterday [3/30/2009] declared "the end of that road" for GM and Chrysler.  In the next breath, he seemed to put Washington and Detroit on a new road of politicized industrial policy.  So pick your poison. Hoyer: 'I Don't Know' Where Obama Got Legal Authority for Auto Plan.  House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) told CNSNews.com on Tuesday [3/31/2009] that he does not know where President Barack Obama gained legal authority to oversee a restructuring of General Motors and Chrysler.  But if authority is a question, he said, then Congress will grant it to the administration. Car Crazy.  The good news is that the Obama administration's task force charged with revamping the auto industry has concluded what many suggested last year before massive taxpayer bailouts.  The task force is now saying the best chance for success for both GM and Chrysler "may well require utilizing the bankruptcy code in a quick and surgical way."  Now they tell us — after $22 billion in taxpayer subsidies have been poured into the two companies. You break it, you own it.  GM, now renamed Government Motors, has a new CEO:  President Barack Obama.  By replacing the head of the company and demanding a restructuring of its board in return for further TARP aid, Obama has taken upon himself the responsibility for the future of the company.  As Gen. Colin Powell said when Bush was considering invading Iraq and toppling the Saddam Hussein government there:  "If you break it, you own it."  Now it is Obama's company. Obama's Lemon.  The farcical bailout of GM and Chrysler drew nearer to its inevitable end yesterday [3/30/2009] as Pres. Barack Obama started laying the groundwork for a blameless escape.  The administration rejected both companies' restructuring plans as inadequate but nevertheless offered them one more last chance:  To qualify for more government aid, GM must fire its CEO and come up with a new viability plan within the next 60 days, and Chrysler must reach an agreement to merge with Fiat in the next 30 days. The Editor says... Fiat?  How will a merger with a foreign company benefit America? The Illegal, Unconstitutional Bush-Obama Auto Bailout.  When the president takes an official action, let alone one fundamentally altering the relationship between government and a major industry, two questions must be asked:  Is it constitutional?  Does the president have legal authority to do it?  In the case of the auto-industry bailout and restructuring program begun under President Bush and now escalating under President Obama, the answer to both questions is:  no. Et Tu, Barack?  In the space of 48 hours, the president of the United States seized control of one of the world's largest manufacturing companies and fired its CEO.  He followed up by congratulating our representatives for creating the 14th-largest paid entity on the planet — a quarter-million government-paid "volunteers."  And then he departed the capital to receive the cheers of adoring crowds — in Europe.  If Adolf Hitler or Josef Stalin had done any of this, Americans would have gone crazy. Obama's Own Report on GM Says Plan to Build Non-Gas-Burning Car Would Not Save Company.  The report on General Motors released by the White House says the company's restructuring plan will not lead to a stronger company, in part because the beleaguered auto giant's proposal to rely more heavily on advanced, fuel-efficient cars is not commercially viable.  The report's findings stand in stark contrast with the President's chief goal for America's auto industry:  leading the world in green car production. The Editor says... It would be far better to lead the world in the production of affordable cars or high quality cars or reliable cars or even safe cars, but Obama's goal is to produce tiny little environmental utopian cars for which there is no demand -- unless Obama and Company can choke the supply of oil and gas. Obama's Losing Bet on Detroit.  If you had bought $1,000 worth of General Motors stock in 2000, your holdings would now be worth less than $40, for a loss of 96 percent. ... So anyone looking to participate in a viable business would look a lot of other places before they would look there.  But the United States government thinks GM might just be a really smart place to put its money. Invasion of the Corporate Snatchers.  The plot of the 1956 cult classic "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" seems remarkably similar to the storyline of the Obama administration, which is invading, and appears eager to take over, corporate America.  Unfortunately, the reality of the threat to American corporations is far creepier than any science-fiction film could ever be. Satire: Government Motors (GM) Unveils its First Model!  Now that President Barack Obama is wielding greater control of the auto industry, he's decided it's time to design a vehicle fit for this new era.  He got a thousand of the government's best and brightest (995 lawyers and politicians and five engineers) to design a car fit for the needs of the twenty-first century while including forward-thinking sensibilities.  This new car is called the B-ROC and it is truly the Obama of automobiles. You've Been Warned.  Over the past three months we have witnessed some truly amazing movements by the Obama administration.  He has proposed more spending than all Presidents in history combined; he has trampled the Constitution by allowing the Treasury to take on a dictator style infringement on private companies, and now the democratically lead Congress has proposed the "Pay for Performance Act" which passed Thursday [4/2/2009] with even some Republican Congressman voted for it.  This bill essentially allows the Treasury to define "fair pay" for all employees, at any level. Few in White House appear to drive American cars.  Oops, it seems that many on President Obama's team, including those seeking to save the American automobile industry, do not actually drive vehicles from the American automobile industry.  According to a study by the Detroit News and a White House parking lot survey by Politico.com, neither do Obama's White House staffers. ... The Politico survey of cars parked next to the White House found only five U.S. brand cars out of 23 -- a Dodge, two Fords, a Jeep and a Cadillac. Government vs. the Axles of Evil.  Presidents must be able to speak pluperfect nonsense with a straight face, lest the country understand what the government is doing.  Obfuscation serves political salvation when what the government is doing includes promising that if Chrysler will sell itself to Fiat, U.S. taxpayers will lend that Italian firm $6 billion. Let's look under the hood of the Constitution.  Maybe it's me.  I could just be missing something in the Constitution that authorizes the federal government to run private businesses or to enter into business on its own.  So if anyone knows how the president of the United States got the power to tell the president of General Motors that he was fired (or more politely, that he must resign), please e-mail me. Obama treats GM like a fraudulent Enron while shoveling billions to Wall Street.  General Motors resembles Martha Stewart in three interesting aspects:  As a sacrificial goat to pacify mobs of pack-instinct media, any distraction will do if it sidetracks the publicÕs attention away from the indecencies the Obama administration is committing in servicing Wall Street bandits while forcing auto makers to beg for gruel. Nothing to Fear but O Himself.  Obama and his economics team decided [Rick] Wagoner had to go because, one source told the Wall Street Journal, "This is Obama, and symbols of change are important."  So even the government isn't saying Wagoner was a poor manager but that his dismissal had symbolic, i.e. political, value.  What symbol was it Obama was thinking of?  Maybe it's the thunderbolt.  A president who can fire the head of one of America's most storied companies has a lot of power.  Obama wants businesses to get the message that they should fear him. Ford is not Obama Motors.  Ford does not want to be lumped in with GM and Chrysler.  Ford is not taking government bailout money, company types say.  Bottom line:  Ford is not Obama Motors. Fiat CEO: Concessions or no alliance with Chrysler.  Fiat Group SpA CEO Sergio Marchionne is ready to walk away from a proposed alliance with beleaguered Chrysler LLC if the U.S. automaker's unions do not agree to concessions that would put their pay on the same scale as workers at North American plants owned by foreign car companies. Fiat Delivers Ultimatum to Chrysler Unions: Cut Costs or We Walk.  Fiat is playing a hardball game of "Deal or No Deal" with the United Auto Workers union, which has been resisting proposed cuts in benefits and pay that would come as part of a government-suggested merger with Chrysler. This is what the GM takeover is all about — environmentalism! Obama's Energy Policy Driven by Ideology, not Reason.  Obama's dealings with General Motors provide ample evidence that his strident left-wing beliefs supersede sound economic judgment.  With GM, Obama is leveraging bailout money to shape the automobile industry according to the designs of the environmental lobby.  Soon after Obama fired GM CEO Rick Wagner, the Administration announced it was overriding the recommendation of the president's own auto task force by deciding to move forward with the Chevy Volt — the company's electric car.  But it's no secret that the Volt is going to be a financial loser. GM Is Becoming a Royal Debacle.  It's good to be the king — until you start tripping over your own robe.  So King Barack the Mild is finding as he tries to dictate the terms of what amounts to an out-of-court bankruptcy for Chrysler and GM.  He wants Chrysler's secured lenders to give up their right to nearly full recovery in a bankruptcy in return for 15 cents on the dollar.  They'd be crazy to do so, of course, except that these banks also happen to be beholden to the administration for TARP money. TARP Looking More Criminal by the Minute.  The Emergency Economic Stabilization Act, the statute that authorizes TARP, doesn't give the Treasury the power to make direct investments in banks at all.  It gives the Treasury the power to buy troubled assets and to write insurance against losses in troubled assets.  But there's not one single solitary word in the act that authorizes the Treasury to buy stock in banks.  And there's not one single solitary word in the act that authorizes the Treasury to do anything at all for auto companies like General Motors and Chrysler.  The act only authorizes helping "financial institutions."  Yet billions of TARP dollars have gone to the two automakers. Geithner:  The Fox Guarding the Henhouse?  What is going on in this country?  The government is about to take over GM in a plan that completely screws private bondholders and favors the unions.  Get this:  The GM bondholders own $27 billion and they're getting 10 percent of the common stock in an expected exchange.  And the UAW owns $10 billion of the bonds and they're getting 40 percent of the stock. GM Bankruptcy Probable as Obama Shields UAW Benefits.  General Motors Corp. may be more likely to end up in bankruptcy based on the Obama administration's willingness to place Chrysler LLC into court protection to safeguard union health-care benefits.  With GM and its biggest bondholders at odds over resolving $27 billion in unsecured claims by a June 1 deadline, the Chrysler model indicates that President Barack Obama may resort to bankruptcy to end any impasse over that debt... Would you buy a car from Obama?  The real test of Barack Obama's sex appeal is coming soon to an automobile showroom near you — Would you buy a new car from this man?  The president has given his personal warranty on cars from Detroit — if a fuel pump on your new Pontiac falls apart and the dealer won't make it good, just call the White House and ask for the president. Return of Le Car.  "When you buy a car, I hope it will be a Democratic car."  Oops.  We have misquoted the president.  He said last week he hoped you would buy an "American car" — though apparently not one built in a red state in a plant owned by Japanese or German investors.  He meant a car built by a company headquartered in Detroit, even if the car itself is assembled in Mexico or Canada.  How confusing. Chrysler bankruptcy creates lemon law turmoil.  Chrysler's bankruptcy is throwing a wrench into California's lemon law, which is intended to make it easier for consumers to get refunds for defective vehicles.  As the automaker's bankruptcy grinds away, settlement checks from Chrysler to unhappy car buyers are bouncing and complaints are stymied in and out of court. O's Road to Ruin.  There's nothing wrong with Chrysler and GM building fuel-efficient green cars — if they can make money.  I'd have no problem whatsoever if one of them manufactured a pink, snout-grilled mini-car that ran on manure — as long as it proved profitable.  My goal as a taxpayer is to see that these companies earn enough so that they return my tax dollars as soon as possible.  And what if green cars aren't the way to go? The Top Ten Reasons Obamanomics Won't Work.  [#5] Government creates a new welfare system for union members when it preserves zombie auto companies in order to save "jobs."  It creates a sham "financial system" when it bails out "systemically important" banks and insurance companies — those that are too embarrassing to fail. Obama-UAW theft, payoff.  President Obama and his advisers are determined to turn control of Chrysler Corp. over to the United Auto Workers in spite of the fact that concessions to the union are largely responsible for the automaker's inability to make a profit.  Still, the UAW and other unions were among Obama's biggest supporters and are ready to collect. Did someone mention the UAW? GM shares fall to 76-year low after execs dump stock.  General Motors Corp stock plunged more than 22 percent to a 76-year low on Tuesday, a day after GM's top executives dumped their shares as the automaker heads toward a bankruptcy or a restructuring that would all but wipe out existing shareholders. Chrysler and the Rule of Law:  While the rest of the world in 1787 was governed by the whims of kings and dukes, the U.S. Constitution was established to circumscribe arbitrary government power.  It would do so by establishing clear rules, equally applied to the powerful and the weak.  Fleecing lenders to pay off politically powerful interests, or governmental threats to reputation and business from a failure to toe a political line?  We might expect this behavior from a Hugo Chávez.  But it would never happen here, right? CEObama: The Car Czar.  As the saying goes, be careful what you wish for — you just might get it.  Just ask American car makers.  In December, the CEOs of General Motors and Chrysler flew, hat in hand, to Washington.  They needed billions of taxpayer dollars to stay out of bankruptcy court, company executives said.  Unfortunately for all of us, they got their wish.  And more than they thought they'd bargained for. Deadly Dreams in Tiny Cars.  According to MSNBC, President Obama is enjoying amazing support from "an uncommon alliance of auto executives, union leaders and environmental activists" concerning is new proposal to raise mileage standards and curb vehicle emissions.  But if you look at this support, you can see why it's as pathetic as spoilers on a Yugo.  Of course, the auto executives are behind it, because the government is paying them to be behind it. Ex-Piston Sura files first Saturn lawsuit.  A Saturn dealership co-owned by former Detroit Piston Bob Sura has launched the first of an expected flood of lawsuits against General Motors Corp., arguing the automaker's plan to eliminate the brand rendered his franchise "worthless." Chrysler objections mount.  A flurry of objections in the Chrysler LLC bankruptcy case continue to be filed in advance of a hearing next week to approve a tie-up with Fiat SpA.  The latest bankruptcy court filings submitted in New York come from various groups including the city of Auburn Hills, which says it is owed $1.9 million in property taxes, to worried pensioners scared about their future, to lawyers concerned that bankruptcy will wipe out dozens of product liability lawsuits. Small investors feel stiffed in GM deal.  "Creditors have better memories than debtors."  Benjamin Franklin could not have imagined a spectacle like the bailout and restructuring of General Motors in 1758, but thousands of individual bondholders across the country are getting a bitter reminder of the Founding Father's wisdom. Obama at the Auto Buffet.  With his latest installment of ever-higher fuel mileage requirements for the auto industry, Barack Obama embraces a momentary, crisis-spawned expansion of the art of the possible, unleavened by any art of the rationally desirable.  Detroit is dependent on Washington loans for survival.  The industry's lobbyists and its congressional allies have collapsed in a heap, offering no resistance. Barack Obama is now running the automobile industry.  The wise and powerful wizard Obama, having loaned taxpayer money to Detroit to "bail them out" — thus avoiding simple bankruptcy, where the firms might have shed their overly costly union contracts and emerged to renewed profitability — now simply decrees what kind of cars Detroit will make. ... The chutzpah here, the arrogance, is astounding.  Does this man really believe he has the whole nation hypnotized — that he can say one thing while doing just the opposite? Obama's theft:  He can't blame 'speculators' now.  The legal issue here is investor rights.  These pension funds and many other Chrysler investors were secured investors.  They are contractually entitled to be repaid first, before other Chrysler bondholders are, and to receive an ownership stake in the company should it go bankrupt.  The President willfully ignored those contractual obligations.  To secure more money and power for Chrysler's unions, which he grants 55 percent ownership of the company, he simply nullified the company's contracts with its secured investors.  Then he covered his tracks by attacking the investors as "speculators." Fund Managers Burned by Obama Now Say They Are Wary.  Hedge fund manager George Schultze says he may avoid lending to any more unionized companies after being burned by President Barack Obama in Chrysler LLC's bankruptcy. Lawmakers want Obama to slow down on GM, Chrysler.  Lawmakers appealed to the Obama administration on Friday [5/22/2009] to slow down the restructuring of General Motors and Chrysler, wary of shuttered car dealerships, job losses and the big unknown of a GM bankruptcy.  "We are asking President Obama to call 'time-out' on his automobile task force," said Rep. Steve LaTourette, R-Ohio. U.S. Lends Additional $4 Billion to Ailing GM as Bankruptcy Looms.  General Motors Corp. said Friday that it has borrowed an additional $4 billion from the Treasury Department, meaning the automaker has now accepted $19.4 billion in loans from the U.S. government.  GM started taking government money in December and said it intended to borrow $2.6 billion more by June 1 and an additional $9 billion after that.  But in a regulatory filing Friday [5/22/2009], GM said it needed $1.4 billion sooner than originally forecast. Obama:  Not The First Head Of State To Design Cars.  This week, Obama imposed on American car manufacturers strict fuel efficiency and emissions standards, to be introduced in 2012.  Manufacturers will reportedly get extra pats on the head for cranking out electric cars like General Motors' Chevy Volt — which will soak American consumers for about $40,000.  In other words, they're going to make cars only hippies want, at prices only CEOs can afford.  Don't like it?  Then ride a bike or take the bus. Obama Asserts Government Control Over the Auto Industry.  President Barack Obama asserted unprecedented government control over the auto industry Monday [3/30/2009], bluntly rejecting turnaround plans by General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC, demanding fresh concessions for long-term federal aid and raising the possibility of quick bankruptcy for either ailing auto giant. The new GM:  Government Motors?  A new name for Detroit's weakened auto giant GM is making the rounds, sometimes with irony, sometimes with dread, suggested by the deepest Washington industrial intervention in a half-century.  The Obama administration is planting itself at the wheel of General Motors with a major ownership stake — and all that goes with it for the U.S. taxpayer. And They Said Bush Was Clueless.  The President mentioned the Rule of Law in a speech last week.  At the National Archives about his policies on terrorism, he said:  "From Europe to the Pacific, we've been the nation that has shut down torture chambers and replaced tyranny with the rule of law."  But the previous week the administration blew off the Rule of Law in the Chrysler bankruptcy. Beat the Dealer.  When people talk about the problems that have driven Chrysler to bankruptcy and General Motors to the brink thereof, they usually have in mind the companies' excessive commitments to those who build their cars:  the high wages, lavish benefits and irrational work rules written into union contracts.  A less-discussed problem is the companies' relationship with those who sell their cars. In search of real conservatives.  The figure of $1.4 million, for the amount of the taxpayers' money that will be spent on saving each job at General Motors and Chrysler, has now appeared in the media.  I have no idea whether it is accurate; more fundamentally, no idea how anyone could arrive at a plausible final reckoning, at the bottom of a sheet of wildly expensive variables. ... Government bailouts are unlimited, more or less by definition.  For were a government to say, "You may have $13.5 billion, but after you've blown that in, you're on your own," it might as well say, "You may have zero."  Once the principle of fiscal accountability is abandoned, it is abandoned. See the USA in Your Government Car.  Despite disclaimers from President Obama that the government doesn't want to be in the car business, it is hard to see what it has bought with our tax dollars other than two of what used to be known as "the big three."  Government by default or determination will choose the types of cars the companies it owns will make.  Government will buy a lot of them because not enough customers will unless they are made offers they can't refuse, not by a car salesman in a loud sport coat, but by a government bureaucrat in a suit. Just say no to Government Motors and Obamacars.  I won't buy a socialist car, which means I won't be buying a GM or Chrysler car for as long as the U.S. government owns huge blocks of the companies.  Today's bankruptcy filing by GM will see the end of a once-great car company and the birth of a federal government-union partnership dressed up as a business.  It won't work, even with the $50 billion federal tax dollars plowed into the new entity past and present, and not even with the UAW's "concessions."  Governments can do very few things well and almost nothing efficiently. What I Learned as a Car Czar.  The current takeover of General Motors by the U.S. government and United Auto Workers makes me think back to Romania's catastrophic mismanagement of the car factories it built jointly with the French companies Renault and Citroen.  I was Romania's car czar.  When the Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu decided in the mid-1960s that he wanted to have a car industry, he chose me to start the project rolling. GM shows Obama is no Vulcan.  Yes, bondholders may well accept General Motors' new proposed offer of 10 percent of a reorganized company and warrants to purchase another 15 percent.  But that doesn't change the topsy-turvy reality of unions being favoured over creditors.  Coming out of bankruptcy, the government could own 72.5 percent of the automaker, the United Auto Workers 17.5 percent and creditors 10 percent. Easy answers from Ministry of Truth.  "As GM goes, so goes the nation."  Those words from the era of capitalist glory in the post-war boom are a little scary these days.  General Motors is expected to file for bankruptcy protection on Monday [6/1/2009].  Can the nation be far behind? Will the GM bailout be Obama's tipping point?  The government takeover of the automakers is by far the most unpopular thing Obama has done so far.  And it's not just unpopular — it is partisan, appealing to the base of his party and virtually no one else. Fannie Motors.  Even after the government divests itself of its formal ownership stake, the reality is that GM will remain a government-sponsored enterprise — Fannie Motors might be a better nom de ridicule.  All three Detroit automakers now share the same GSE structure (public mission, private ownership) that failed Fannie and Freddie. Government's Role in GM Bears Resemblance to Amtrak Route.  General Motors is trying to prove that it is the little engine that could.  But the bankrupt automaker may never fully climb the mountain ahead of it, if Amtrak is any example.  Some analysts say the federal government's effort to prop up the nation's largest auto manufacturer is eerily similar to a 40-year effort to revive the nation's ailing railroad system.  Billions of taxpayer dollars later, Amtrak still needs the government to survive — and critics say General Motors appears to be headed down the same track. Obama's socialized bankruptcy for GM.  America's recession might have been longer and the job cuts steeper if General Motors and Chrysler had been thrown into a normal bankruptcy.  Under that route, a judge would have salvaged only the most market-worthy parts of the carmakers and liquidated the noncompetitive parts.  Instead, President Obama chose a different course — prenegotiated bankruptcies — to reorganize each company.  He decided to use his clout to force only certain concessions from stakeholders.  And he decided to cater to political interests, such as demands in Congress not to allow GM to import its own cars made in China. Obama's Jalopy Co.  The problems began last December when the Bush administration, rather than risking taking GM into Chapter 11 and streamlining its bloated union and corporate structure, blinked in a high-stakes game of chicken with the United Auto Workers union and loaned the company $14 billion. ... Well, seven months and a Democratic president later, GM has entered bankruptcy.  Guess what?  It's on UAW terms and at even greater cost to taxpayers. I, Barack Obama.  President Obama used the first-person singular pronoun "I" 34 times on Monday [6/1/2009] when he announced he was nationalizing General Motors.  He used "Congress" once and "law" not at all.  As Obama described it, the government takeover of General Motors was Obama's decision made for Obama's reasons. ... To prevent GM from becoming a ward of the state, Obama made it the property of the state. Has anyone stopped to ask if this takeover is legal?  Apparently not. Hoyer: 'I Don't Know' Where Obama Got Legal Authority for Auto Plan.  House Majority Leader Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) told CNSNews.com on Tuesday [6/2/2009] that he does not know where President Barack Obama gained legal authority to oversee a restructuring of General Motors and Chrysler.  But if authority is a question, he said, then Congress will grant it to the administration. Pelosi Says She's 'Not Heard' Whether Congress Needs to Approve Automaker Bailout.  The auto bailout and government-supervised restructuring plan is an executive branch matter, and it is not something that Congress will get involved in unless asked, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) said Wednesday [6/3/2009].  "If and when the Administration thinks that there should be legislation, then we will take that up," Pelosi said at her press conference yesterday.  "We have not heard, I have not personally heard from the executive branch that they need any legislative remedies," she said. Barney Frank Doesn't Think Congress Will Vote on Obama's Auto-Industry Restructuring Program.  House Financial Services Chairman Barney Frank (D-Mass.), whose panel has oversight over the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP), told CNSNews.com on Thursday he is "not very well informed" about President Barack Obama's plan to restructure General Motors and Chrysler, and he said he does not think that Congress is going to vote on the matter. Let's push the toothpaste back into the tube. 36 Congressmen Ask Obama to Return Authority Over Auto Bailout to Congress.  A bipartisan coalition of 36 members of the House of Representatives — including 30 Republicans and 6 Democrats — has sent a letter to President Obama asking him to return to Congress its constitutional legislative authority to oversee the bailout of the auto industry.  In December, Congress failed to pass a bill authorizing a bailout of Chrysler and General Motors.  President Bush and now President Obama, however, proceeded with a bailout process even without legislative autority. Seeking More Federal Money, GM and Chrysler Promise Greener Vehicles.  Both General Motors and Chrysler made green vehicles a key part of their respective restructuring plan presented to federal officials this week, as the struggling U.S. car makers again asked for billions more in taxpayer funding. Socialism won't work for Obama, either.  [Scroll down]  If the businesses were not producing what people wanted at a price people would pay, they were simply taking up resources that could be better allocated elsewhere, the economists said. ... My question is where are those economists now that we need them to preach the same lesson to the Obama administration, which has nationalized General Motors, saying that, well, if we didn't, GM would collapse and unemployment would climb to 10 percent or worse, and, anyway, Washington knows best. Stopping Government Motors.  President Obama's decision to seize General Motors and convert it into Government Motors is as shocking as it is unpopular.  Polling shows, like the president's stubborn insistence that Gitmo be closed and its terrorist prisoners brought stateside, the president's insistence that GM be nationalized is appalling to large majorities of Americans.  The socialization of America's biggest brand is not the sort of decision that can be cloaked in head-faking rhetoric. Obama Motors: Costly, Bureaucratic, and Pointless.  It is overwhelming to consider the ways this new mandate will harm the American economy.  This stealth energy tax will significantly increase the cost of every single new car on the market.  Early reports suggest that consumers can expect to pay between $1,000 and $3,000 more for small cars and up to $5,000 more for large cars. ... The mandate demonstrates just how seriously the feds are taking their new role as car company chief:  The government isn't just going to make decisions about how best to run their operations.  They're also going to limit your choice of automobile and force you to pay more in the process — that is, those who can still afford a new car. President Obama: We Are 'Reluctant Shareholders' of GM.  "We are acting as reluctant shareholders," President Obama said today, announcing the federal government's unprecedented 60 percent stake in General Motors, a company that will ultimately receive almost $50 billion from the U.S. taxpayer.  "That is the only way to help G.M. succeed."  Attempting to reassure Americans skeptical of this step, the president said, "What we are not doing — what I have no interest in doing — is running G.M." The Obama Motor Co.  Welcome to Obama Motors, and what is likely to be a long, expensive and unhappy exercise in political car making. ... Every decision the feds have made since December suggests that nonpolitical management will be impossible.  First they replaced Mr. Wagoner — whom they are nonetheless still paying — with the more pliable Fritz Henderson as CEO and Kent Kresa as Chairman.  The latter are good at playing Washington but unproven in making popular cars. The Quagmire Ahead.  Over the last five decades, this company [GM] has progressively lost touch with car buyers, especially the educated car buyers who flock to European and Japanese brands.  Over five decades, this company has tolerated labor practices that seem insane to outsiders.  Over these decades, it has tolerated bureaucratic structures that repel top talent.  It has evaded the relentless quality focus that has helped companies like Toyota prosper.  As a result, G.M. has steadily lost U.S. market share, from 54 to 19 percent. A Matter Of Law.  With General Motors' long-awaited "pre-packaged bankruptcy" finally here, America is on the verge of a new era — one where government, not investors and consumers, is the final arbiter of success. 'Green' cars will go flat.  Get ready, folks.  America has bought a car company.  As of Monday [6/1/2009], we, the taxpayers, own a majority stake in General Motors Corp. Whether the company will be formally renamed Government Motors remains to be seen.  But that's what it will be. ... Yes, we the people will be left holding the bag for the mistakes of GM's management and labor leaders over the past four decades. The United Auto Workers:  Busted?  It's been a long time since American devotees of Marx (Karl, not Groucho) have had much to cheer about.  But with the bankruptcy filings of General Motors and Chrysler, and the transfer of stock ownership from the firms' long-suffering shareholders to the government and unions, communists of the world can rejoice.  The workers are now, finally, significant owners of the means of production.  The United Auto Workers control about 65 percent of Chrysler and 17.5 percent of General Motors. Venezuela Chavez says "Comrade" Obama more left-wing.  Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez said on Tuesday [6/2/2009] that he and Cuban ally Fidel Castro risk being more conservative than U.S. President Barack Obama as Washington prepares to take control of General Motors Corp.  During one of Chavez's customary lectures on the "curse" of capitalism and the bonanzas of socialism, the Venezuelan leader made reference to GM's bankruptcy filing, which is expected to give the U.S. government a 60 percent stake in the 100-year-old former symbol of American might. Cops and Teachers vs. Chrysler and Obama.  The list of victims for Obama's government squeeze of auto maker bondholders is longer than anyone thinks.  Not only is the story of pension funds who were stiffed when Obama wiped Chrysler's slate clean not being widely reported, but the victims of those funds — in one case, Indiana cops and teachers — remain unidentified by the media.  It is a calamity for tens of thousands of Americans as reported in Business Week by Esme Deprez. Obama's man called shots on bankruptcy.  Not since President Harry S. Truman seized the American steel industry in 1952 has America seen such a bold exercise of federal power over a vital organ of the U.S. economy.  More than 30 hours of testimony and dozens of e-mails in the court of U.S. Bankruptcy Judge Arthur Gonzalez lift the curtain on how forcefully President Barack Obama's automotive task force pushed Chrysler LLC into bankruptcy and into the arms of Fiat SpA of Italy. Detroit's New 'Green' Delusion.  It's obvious why Saturn flopped:  The company had built a popular brand as a sort of feel-good anti-car — vaguely tractor-like, noisy, but made of semi-indestructible plastic by dedicated Tennessee workers and — unique in nearly all of GM — actually reliable.  GM threw all this away and filled Saturn showrooms with cars designed to appeal to totally different buyers:  rebadged mainstream Opels.  They were OK, but creepily overstyled and not so reliable.  End of explanation. Administration blames Bush for GM crisis.  The Obama administration has a familiar response to criticism of the General Motors bailout — they inherited this mess from George W. Bush.  Austan Goolsbee, a senior economic adviser to President Obama, said the administration's options were sharply limited by President Bush's handling of the auto industry, and accused the prior administration of running out the clock. Obamanomics: How Stupid Do They Think We Are?  Bush's move came after then President-elect Obama implored him to take action to stave off the collapse of the auto-industry.  This was one of the major topics of their meeting in the White House on November 11, covered ... by the Wall Street Journal.  Back then, Speaker Nancy Pelosi and Majority Leader Harry Reid were already urging Bush to study whether — regardless of how Democrat sponsored auto bail-out legislation fared — the president already had the authority to divert financial sector bail-out funds for Detroit.  So it was that when Republicans defeated the auto bail-out bill December, Bush, at the urging of Obama and the Democrats, made one of the worst gaffes of his presidency by extending over $17B in government "loans" to GM and Chysler.  For the Obama/Democrat line to now be that Bush foisted this mess on the new administration, and that Bush is to blame for Obama's geometric exacerbation of the problem, is breathtaking. Have We Got a Deal For You at GM.  [Obama says,] "When a difficult decision has to be made on matters like where to open a new plant or what type of new car to make, the new GM, not the United States government, will make that decision."  But the government is GM's largest shareholder, customer, tax collector, regulator, partner in determining employees' compensation, protector of dealers and pension guarantor.  GM's other large owner, the United Auto Workers, is increasingly a government dependant.  Yet Steve Rattner and Ron Bloom, two of the president's fixers of Detroit, recently wrote in USA Today that government "will play no role" in running GM.  They were not under oath. Supreme Court Halts Chrysler Sale to Fiat.  The Supreme Court on Monday granted an emergency appeal asking it to halt the impending government-backed sale of Chrysler to Italian automaker Fiat.  The order stops for now Chrysler's sale, which the company claims could scuttle the deal.  Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg signed the order, but it may be only temporary. Top court's move throws Chrysler deal in doubt.  Chrysler LLC's plan to wed Italian automaker Fiat SpA and create the world's sixth largest automaker was thrown into serious doubt after the highest court in the United States ordered the marriage be delayed until it reviews objections by creditors including teachers and police officers. Taxpayers Have $80.3 billion Invested in Detroit.  The taxpayers' investment in the U.S. auto industry rose to $80.3 billion, after the U.S. Treasury provided a new $30.1 billion bankruptcy loan to General Motors on Wednesday [6/3/2009], two days after GM filed for bankruptcy, a new Treasury report said. High court blocks Chrysler sale to Fiat.  Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg today delayed Chrysler's sale of most of its assets to a group led by Italy's Fiat, but didn't say how long the deal will remain on hold.  Ginsburg said in an order that the sale is "stayed pending further order," indicating that the delay may only be temporary. Mice Roar At Fiat Deal.  Fiat wants to establish a "global strategic alliance" with its U.S. counterpart Chrysler.  But pension funds opposition to Chrysler's sale to Fiat might pose the latest challenge for the Italian carmaker's ambitions. ... Fiat, which is not paying anything for its 20% stake in Chrysler, still has the right to walk away from the deal if it hasn't been consummated by June 15. Republicans hope General Motors is President Obama's Hurricane Katrina.  General Motors hopes that bankruptcy will make the struggling automaker stronger and more competitive.  Republicans are hoping it will do the same for them.  The GOP sees President Barack Obama's decision to help the unpopular carmaker as an easy opportunity to paint him as a bailout-happy, deficit-drunk spendthrift eager to impose a heavy government hand on a swath of industries. Obama Motors.  President Obama claims to "have no interest" in running General Motors.  He does so with a straight face — and the same monotonous cadence that he employs whether condemning North Korea for nuclear explosions or joking with Jay Leno.  But his actions, as well as his words, betray him. ... Which is more absurd — his implication that he is the embodiment of the U.S. government or that a former community organizer, part-time lawyer, part-time lecturer, part-time author, and fulltime politician knows beans about running the nation's largest automaker? Ford pulls its weight without bailout funds.  Amid bankruptcies and forecasts of Detroit doom, one of the Big Three is hanging tough.  Ford tough.  Once defined by the revolutionary Model T, Ford is motoring on without federal bailouts, Treasury-led restructurings or bankruptcy judges.  Ford Motor Co.'s U.S. market share grew last month, and sales surpassed even mighty Toyota's.  Ford's shares have outperformed those of Honda and Toyota over the past year.  Shares of archrival General Motors Corp., now in bankruptcy, are nearly worthless. The Party Of Yes: 6 Ways Democrats Are Hurting America.  [#1]  Taking over the auto industry:  Welcome to "Government Motors," where Barack Obama is the Super-CEO and the union now owns 51% of Chrysler.  By the time it's over, the price tag for this debacle looks likely to reach into the hundreds of billions despite the fact that both companies will still go through bankruptcy, which is what critics of the bailout suggested as an alternative to government intervention last year.  We have the government hiring and firing corporate execs, getting involved in the cars they're making, politicizing dealer closings — and Barney Frank apparently even has veto power over which plants are shut down.  In other words, if you thought GM and Chrysler had problems before, just wait until Barack Obama, Barney Frank, Nancy Pelosi, and Harry Reid get through tinkering with companies.  My advice?  Buy Ford. Local investor's life savings wiped out in bankruptcy.  Michael Byrne, 81, worked long hours for decades in various businesses to raise his six children.  He and his wife, Lucy, paid their bills and set money aside for retirement.  But his decision to put all his savings behind General Motors appears nearly to have wiped him out financially, and he's joined with other small GM investors in a suit to recoup more of their losses. Auto plan hits potholes.  President Obama's plan to save GM and Chrysler through forced bankruptcy got blindsided on Monday [6/8/2009] by the other two branches of the federal government.  On Monday afternoon the Supreme Court agreed to delay the sale of Chrysler's assets to Italian carmaker Fiat in order to further consider the argument of three Indiana bondholders who claim they were shortchanged by the prepackaged bankruptcy organized by the Obama administration. No. 2 House Republican compares Obama to Putin.  The No. 2 Republican in the House on Thursday [6/11/2009] compared President Barack Obama's plans for the auto industry to the policies of Russian Prime Minister Vladimir Putin, saying the White House has stripped credit holders of rights and given them to Democratic allies.  "They said, 'Set aside the rule of law, let's strip secured creditors, bondholders, of their rights.  Take them away outside of the bankruptcy process and give them to the political cronies and the auto workers' unions," Rep. Eric Cantor, R-Va., said in an interview with The Associated Press. FOX News Poll: Americans Disapprove of GM Takeover.  By 58 percent to 38 percent voters across the country say they disapprove of the government takeover and majority ownership stake in General Motors.  Majorities of Republicans (79 percent) and independents (59 percent) think it was a bad move, as well as a sizable minority of Democrats (39 percent).  And by an 8 percentage point margin slightly more Americans think the government should have let the market decide GM's fate (52 percent) than believe it was in the country's best interest to save the car maker (44 percent). Once, We Would Have Called It a Scandal.  Between 2000 and 2008, the United Auto Workers (UAW) union gave $23,675,562 to the Democratic Party and its candidates.  In 2008 alone, the UAW gave $4,161,567 to the Democratic Party, including Barack Obama.  In return, the UAW received 55 percent of Chrysler and 17.5 percent of GM, plus billions of dollars.  But nobody's calling this a scandal.  It's time we start. The Unsustainable Obama Presidency.  Less than six months into it and the Barack Obama presidency has been unmitigated mayhem.  Barack-caused disasters befall the nation on a near daily basis, one can scarcely keep track anymore. ... Obama's despotic seizure of the auto industry has resulted in entirely predictable calamity.  Rather than allow GM and Chrysler to go through an orderly Chapter 11 bankruptcy, Obama forced the car companies into a prefab restructuring contrived to be political recompense to the UAW.  Characteristically, the mainstream media has been oblivious to the fiscal carnage Obama has wrought in less than half a year. Would You Invest in the New GM?  President Obama dismantled two centuries of contract law in his "pre-packaged bankruptcy" of GM.  Legal and binding contracts were wiped out with the GM assets disproportionately distributed to the government and unions, leaving investors and dealers holding the short straw.  The United Auto Workers (UAW) will receive about 17.5% of the stock for $10 billion of unsecured debts, the bondholders will receive about 10% of the stock for $27 billion in secured debt, and stockholders will get zero.  Where else would unsecured debt be favored over secured debt? New GM CEO's Chicago Links.  Don't be hard on GM's new chairman Edward Whitacre for confessing during an interview last week that he knows nothing about cars.  He simply suffered a Joe Biden moment.  Texans often tumble over their tongues when taking a stab at humility.  In fact, few car companies, let alone their CEOs, know how to build cars, which is why so many of them are conking out.  The Obama administration, in my view, picked Whitacre to run General Motors because he has a more important talent:  He knows how to play Chicago-style politics. Creditors Cry Foul at Chrysler Precedent.  Chrysler Group LLC's restructuring is altering the bankruptcy landscape well beyond the auto industry.  Within days of a bankruptcy-court judge's approval of the government's plan to sell Chrysler to Fiat SpA and leave creditors with big losses, a lawyer in the bankruptcy case of the National Hockey League's Phoenix Coyotes invoked Chrysler in trying to push through the speedy sale of the team. The Newest Unnecessary 'Car' Fad.  A collaborative effort between General Motors and Segway Inc. debuted Tuesday, April 7, in New York:  the new PUMA (Personal Urban Mobility and Accessibility vehicle).  With the assistance of GM, Segway did something everyone thought was absolutely impossible:  They made the Segway even dorkier. GM's Sale Opposed by 10 States, Union Retirees and Chrysler.  General Motors Corp.'s planned sale drew objections from Chrysler Group LLC, the other U.S. automaker that filed for bankruptcy protection this year, as well as at least 10 states and union retirees.  Attorneys general from Connecticut, Kentucky, Missouri, Nebraska, Maryland, Vermont, Minnesota, North Dakota, Ohio and West Virginia objected to the sale, saying it would circumvent state laws that protect GM dealers' contracts and consumers with product liability claims. A Cancer In The Capitol Is Killing Us.  How well do you suppose the new GM Obamobile is going to sell? Just like the "Smart Car," it's going to be the laughing stock of the roadways and put GM into deeper debt than it had before all this started.  Eventually, it will have to be recalled for being unsafe to drive on American highways after the lawsuits start flooding in from all of the fatalities in crashes. ... They tell us that the people now own AIG, General Motors, Chrysler, and many others.  No we don't.  We have less control over those companies now than we had when they were stockholder owned. GM, Amtrak and an Increasingly Fascist America.  Public officials are now involving themselves in tactical business decisions such as where GM's headquarters should move and what kind of cars it will build.  The promise that this is temporary and will eventually be profitable is supposed to ease the American people into accepting this arrangement, but it is of little comfort to those who remember similar promises when the American taxpayers bought Amtrak.  After three years, government was supposed to be out of the passenger rail business.  40 years and billions of dollars later, the government is still operating Amtrak at a loss, despite the fact that they have created a monopoly by making it illegal to compete with Amtrak.  Imagine what they can now do to what is left of the great American auto industry! Labor in the Driver's Seat.  How does the Obama administration love organized labor?  Let us count the ways it uses power to repay unions for helping to put it in power.  It has given the United Auto Workers majority ownership of Chrysler.  It has sent $135 billion of supposed stimulus money to state governments to protect unionized public-sector employees from layoffs and other sacrifices that private sector workers are making.  It has sedated the Labor Department's Office of Labor-Management Standards, which protects workers against misbehavior by union leaders. Something's Smelly At GM.  You're a once-mighty auto company that's been bailed out by taxpayers, taken over by government and just posted a 22% sales drop.  What's your next move?  Why, unveil a new men's fragrance, of course! Obama's auto chief:  Government won't sell all its GM stake.  The U.S. Treasury will not sell its entire 61% stake in General Motors Co. if the automaker succeeds in selling shares to the public next year, the head of the Obama auto task force said today [7/27/2009].  "We would not expect to sell the entire stake," said Ron Bloom who testified before the Congressional Oversight Panel at a hearing in Detroit.  Bloom was questioned by Chairwoman Elizabeth Warren, who is a Harvard Law School professor, and Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Texas. Obama's Pitchforks:  [Scroll down]  Next up?  The cram down bankruptcies of Chrysler and GM, and the wasting of at least another $60 billion of our money.  Now the US Government owns a majority share in what was once the world's largest manufacturing company.  Who won?  Labor unions and corporate executives.  Who lost?  The American public. GM's $4,000 Car We Won't Get:  In coverage of GM's reported intention to produce a $4,000 car, the company revealed that its near-term "goal" is to "have 75 percent of its sales" outside the United States.  Your tax dollars at work. Dealergate Uncle Sam, Incorporated.  A good money manager might call it a diversified investment portfolio.  Some banks.  An insurance company (AIG).  And automaker General Motors!  Uncle Sam must be feeling good.  For that's what he's holdings as a result of President Obama's shopping spree of the last few months — actual businesses in which the US federal government has taken controlling interest. Obama's Dictator Status Expands With Firing Of Wagoner.  The staggering spectacle of a sitting President effectively firing the CEO of a private company heralds the beginning of a new phase in the government takeover of free enterprise, according to shocked economic observers.  Obama's decision to send GM CEO Rick Wagoner packing on Sunday afternoon stunned a previously buoyant stock market into a 250 point drop on Monday [5/30/2009] as traders struggled to digest the unprecedented move. Is Obama closing GOP car dealers?  Bloggers on the Right side of the Blogosphere are up in arms over data suggesting that President Barack Obama's White House auto industry potentates are targeting for closure Chrysler dealers with records of contributing either to Republicans like Sen. John McCain or to other Democrats in the 2008 presidential primary. Furor grows over partisan car dealer closings.  Evidence appears to be mounting that the Obama administration has systematically targeted for closing Chrysler dealers who contributed to Repubicans.  What started earlier this week as mainly a rumbling on the Right side of the Blogosphere has gathered some steam today with revelations that among the dealers being shut down are a GOP congressman and closing of competitors to a dealership chain partly owned by former Clinton White House chief of staff Mack McLarty. Obama's "Dealergate" Scandal Needs Investigation.  The Obama administration's heavy handed foray into the corporate world of the automakers is rapidly turning into a Class A scandal.  More news is out today on the questionable process used to determine which dealerships would be closed and which ones would reap the remaining business. What DealerGate Says about the Conservative 'Message' Problem.  Did the administration purposefully use its bailout-acquired influence to put the squeeze on Republican auto dealerships?  It doesn't actually matter what the answer to that question is.  The point is, there was evidence to suggest that the Obama administration may have been wielding its economic power — gained at future taxpayers' expense — to punish political enemies.  The accusation was serious enough to call for very thorough reporting, but the major media tried to dismiss the accusation before actually doing the reporting. Protected dealerships that were spared by the Obama administration: Chrysler Dealership Campaign Donation Information.  In my analysis of the Chrysler dealers that will remain open, I came across one dealer group that stood out to me.  The company is called RLJ-McLarty-Landers, and it operates six Chrysler dealerships throughout the South.  All six dealerships are safe from closing. ... The interesting part is who the three main owners of the company are.  The owners are Steve Landers (long-time car dealer, 4th-generation dealer), Thomas "Mack" McLarty (former Chief of Staff for President Clinton), and Robert Johnson (founder of Black Entertainment Television and co-owner of the NBA's Charlotte Bobcats).  Landers has given money to Republicans in the past, but McLarty campaigned for Obama in 2008, and Johnson has given countless amounts of money to Democrats over the years. A New Enemies List?  Chrysler, an American institution, is no longer being operated as a private-sector company.  It's being run by a task force appointed by the White House.  So far, the government has halved Chrysler's ad budget and forced it into a shotgun wedding with Italian carmaker Fiat.  Has it also directed the company to end its contracts with dealers who dared give contributions to the Republican Party and its candidates?  The mainstream media seem less than curious.  But the new media haven't shied away from asking the question. Scandal could derail Democratic dreams.  With $60 billion from taxpayers circling the drain at General Motors and Chrysler, the president is sending mixed signals.  While he doesn't want to be held politically liable for the decisions the companies make, he promises accountability and to be involved on all the major moves.  This will lead to indecision and errors.  And in the chaos, opportunists will take advantage.  Rep. Barney Frank has already been leaning on GM to favor his Massachusetts district, and the first round of dealer closings prompted an outcry about favoritism. Study: Rural Chrysler dealers hit worst.  Rural Chrysler car dealerships have taken a disproportionate hit in the bid to keep the bankrupt company afloat, according to a study released Friday by a group devoted to rural issues.  Of the 789 Chrysler dealerships that were forced to close on Tuesday, non-metro and rural areas were hit harder than anywhere else based on a analysis of shuttered dealership locations and census data. Hundreds of CEOs for General Motors.  Rep. Barney Frank, chair of the House Banking Committee, says his successful intervention to keep a General Motors distribution center open in his Massachusetts district isn't evidence that Congress will have undue influence in running the new 60% government-owned auto company.  "I don't think this will lead to a pattern," Mr. Frank assured The Hill newspaper last week after word spread that his phone calls had secured a new lease on life for a GM facility in Norton, Mass. Obama's Real Enemies List.  Apparently successful franchises such as Chrysler's highest-rated 5-star dealerships were ordered closed in favor of less successful car lots and the consistent discriminator was which political party the owners supported.  Reportedly, the closure list was drawn up by the office of the then-car czar, Steven Rattner.  It is no surprise that Rattner's wife is Maureen White, the former Democratic National Committee Finance Chair. Cash for Clunkers What part of the Constitution authorizes the Cash for Clunkers program?  Or is that just a technicality? What better way to stimulate business for Chrysler and GM than to buy a billion dollars' worth of older cars and send them to the scrap yard?  What a great way to keep the UAW afloat!  What a remarkably easy way to buy votes!  A brilliant idea, except that the taxpayers have to pay for it. One man's clunker is another man's dream car.  Driving a clunker is better than walking.  I know a few people who would love to have a "clunker" of their own, rather than ride the bus to work alongside a bunch of nasty, smelly strangers.  But no, these vehicles are just too big.  They must be crushed, and you must drive a 40-mpg crackerbox instead. This program may be the most aggressively wasteful project ever undertaken by the U.S. government. I know not what course others may take; but as for me, I'm keeping my clunker. 'Cash for clunkers' rules are released, sparking a rush.  Clunkermania officially began Friday [7/24/2009].  The federal government finally released the rules that dealers and their customers have to follow to participate in the much-discussed "cash for clunkers" program, which can provide consumers with up to $4,500 when they trade in an older vehicle and buy a newer, more fuel-efficient model from a participating dealer. Crush for Clunkers.  How much do our green representatives in Washington hate SUVs?  They're having them dismantled and destroyed.  As customers flocked to auto dealers this week to see if they qualified for $3,500-$4,500 in taxpayer-subsidized "Cash for Clunkers" rebates, a little noticed provision of the program requires that the trade-in vehicles be "scrapped, crushed or shredded." Cash-for-clunkers program may be suspended.  Four days after it launched, the popular cash-for-clunkers program has burned through its $950-million budget, sending the Obama administration scrambling to find additional money tonight [7/30/2009] and avoid a shutdown of the program. Brakes put on 'cash for clunkers' plan.  The government suspended the explosively popular "cash for clunkers" program, fearing it would go broke before it could pay what it still owes dealers for a huge backlog of sales, according to congressional offices and a dealer group. 'Cash for Clunkers' Car-Rebate Plan Sells Out in Days.  New-car shoppers appear to have already snapped up all the $1 billion that Congress appropriated for the "cash for clunkers" program, leading the Transportation Department to tell auto dealers Thursday night [7/30/2009] to stop offering the rebates. Uh-oh... Five reasons why Cash-for-Clunkers will become a permanent federal entitlement:  [#1] Anytime Congress and the White House see an opportunity to take tax dollars and give them to somebody who can vote, they will do it, regardless of which party is in power.  In a $3.4 trillion annual federal budget, the $1 billion for Cash-for-Clunkers might seem like a drop in the bucket.  Oh ye of little understanding!  The politicians have a billion reasons for why that is the wrong way to look at it. House Votes to Add $2 Billion to 'Cash for Clunkers'.  The U.S. House approved an emergency measure to add $2 billion to the "cash for clunkers" automobile purchase program after a burst of demand exhausted most of the initial $1 billion in less than a week. 'Cash for clunkers' gets stalled.  The government's cash for clunkers program has burned through its $1 billion budget in less than a week as car buyers swarmed dealerships, and federal officials are scrambling to find more money to keep it going, according to government sources.  The program, designed to jump-start car sales and improve the fuel efficiency of the nation's auto fleet, unleashed a wave of pent-up demand that threatened to exhaust funds before dealers could be fully reimbursed for rebates under the plan. 'Cash for Clunkers' Language Gives Feds Authority to Take Control of Computers.  "A warning box comes up, and it says, 'This application provides to the DoT CARS system.  When logged on to the CARS system, your computer is considered a federal computer system and it is property of the United States government,'" [Glenn] Beck read.  "'Any and all uses of this system and all files on this system may be intercepted, monitored, recorded, copied, audited, inspected, and disclosed to authorized CARS, DoT and law enforcement personnel, as well as authorized officials of other agencies, both domestic and foreign.'" Dealers warned off Cash for Clunkers.  Despite the Obama administration's promises that any Clunker deals written this weekend would be honored, the National Automobile Dealers Association is advising its members to play it safe and not close any more deals until the program's fate is clearer. Dealers May Not Honor Clunkers Trades Amidst Government Uncertainty.  With the House pushing for another 2 billion to be injected into the cash-for-clunkers program, auto dealers have found themselves in a sticky situation.  Many dealerships are offering their customers the full $4,500 discount despite uncertainty about when or even if they'll be reimbursed by the government.  This uncertainty stems from not only the grim news about the solvency of the program, but unnerving frustrations over the logistics of the reimbursement system. Well, since that worked out so well...  Imagine the government making an estimable promise of enormous proportion.  Imagine the government pledging a promise so big that it would, in fact, as they would argue, actually save an entire sector of the economy. ... Health care is still a ways off.  No, we're talking about a program that uses our tax dollars to purchase cars that can not be resold, and that no one will drive, but instead be taken directly to the nearest junk yard and crushed.  That's how your government spent 1 Billion dollars in roughly six days. Cash for Clunkers could raid renewable-energy loans.  The money to fund an extended Cash for Clunkers program could come at the expense of renewable energy companies.  The House on Friday [7/31/2009] overwhelmingly passed a bill to extend the program which gives consumers up to $4,500 for trading in old cars for new, fuel-efficient ones with an additional $2 billion.  The initial $1 billion set aside is said to be already or nearly exhausted. Beware the high cost of unintended consequences.  [Scroll down]  Mind you, the government hasn't yet shelled out the $1 billion authorized for Cash for Clunkers.  Dealers reduce the buyers' prices and have to apply to the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration for the rebates and NHTSA — surprise, surprise — has only managed to process 23,000 of an estimated 250,000 applications.  The checks, we are told, will be in the mail.  Oh, there's another problem.  The dealers are required to destroy the clunkers, which will reduce the supply and increase the price of spare parts for those low-income folks who can't afford to trade their clunkers in even with a $4,500 subsidy.  So much for helping the poor. Clunkers Staff Doubled to Handle Paperwork Backlog.  The U.S. Transportation Department is doubling the number of contract workers to process "cash for clunkers" transactions in an attempt to clear a backlog of dealer applications that grew to hundreds of thousands.  A burst of demand exhausted most of the program's initial $1 billion in less than a week. Chrysler Modifies 'Clunker' Incentive.  Chrysler Group LLC is changing an incentive plan that offered to double the government's "cash for clunkers" rebates amid complaints from dealers that inventory is running short.  The move also comes after the cash for clunkers program, which offers rebates from the government of up to $4,500, brought waves of consumers into dealer showrooms. Cash From Clunkers.  The buying spree is good for the car companies, if only for the short term and for certain car models.  It's good, too, for folks who've been sitting on an older car or truck but weren't sure they had the cash to trade it in for something new.  Now they get a taxpayer subsidy of up to $4,500, which on some models can be 25% of the purchase price.  It's hardly surprising that Peter is willing to use a donation from his neighbor Paul, midwifed by Uncle Sugar, to class up his driveway.  On the other hand, this is crackpot economics. A clunker of a law:  Throwing away money to destroy cars.  The Car Allowance Rebate System — cash for clunkers — is designed to stimulate the economy while providing other supposed benefits by reducing greenhouse gases.  To encourage new automobile sales, the government gives $3,500 or $4,500 to motorists when they turn in an older car to buy a new ride.  However, if a driver were even mildly conscious of gas mileage early on, forget it, she won't get anything.  It only rewards those who bought gas guzzlers. More Cash for Clunkers?  It is true that Internet car shopping activity, showroom traffic, and sales are all up, which is why the auto industry wants to keep the program going.  I love a good sales surge as much as anyone.  But it's not that simple.  First, it's not clear that cash for clunkers actually increased sales. Clunker Confusion:  MPG Figures.  Some car shoppers are finding that their trade-in vehicles, which qualified for a Cash for Clunkers rebate last week, don't this week thanks to changes in the EPA's fuel economy ratings.  In some cases, car buyers say, dealers are backing out of sales they've already made because the EPA changed the fuel economy figures on their trade-in. The Killer App for Clunkers Breathes Fresh Life Into 'Liquid Glass'.  Robert Mueller deals in chemicals for a living — things that can unstick glue, thin paint, make plastic — but he'd never seen an order like the one he got for sodium silicate.  The compound is typically used to repel bugs or seal concrete, but this buyer's online order form betrayed a whole different intent:  "To Kill Car Engines." How much is that clunker in the window?  For starters, who says the smartest thing for people with working cars is to buy new ones?  Indeed, because personal debt is supposed to be a problem, why not look at this as bribing consumers into taking out car loans they don't need?  Even with the $4,500 subsidy, not all of these customers are going to be paying cash upfront for their new cars.  So they'll be swapping serviceable-but-paid-for cars for nicer cars that are owned by the banks. U.S. declines to release data on 'cash for clunkers'.  The Obama administration is refusing to release U.S. government records on its "cash for clunkers" rebate program that would substantiate — or undercut — claims of the car purchase program's success. Reid:  Senate 'will pass' $2B extension for clunkers.  The Senate "will pass" an additional $2 billion to the popular "cash for clunkers" program before leaving on its recess this week, Sen. Majority Leader Harry Reid said today.  That would continue the program at least through Labor Day, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood said.  In a news conference today, Secretary LaHood sought to reassure car buyers and dealers that the money will be there to support ongoing purchases. Or maybe not... Senators to put brakes on 'cash for clunkers'.  The Obama administration's oversubscribed "cash for clunkers" scheme looks likely to founder in the Senate this week as bipartisan opposition mounted on Monday [8/3/2009] to the $2bn extension passed last week in the House of Representatives. When the Clunker Is Greener.  Even when new cars and appliances are more efficient than the ones they replace, the act of replacing them entails environmental costs not accounted for in the stimulus programs.  Building a new car, washing machine or refrigerator takes energy and resources:  The manufacture of steel, aluminum and plastics are energy-intensive processes, and some of the materials used in durable goods, especially plastics, use non-renewable fossil fuels as feedstocks as well as energy sources.  Disposing of old products, a step required by most incentive and rebate programs, also has environmental costs. Clunker Debunker.  It's hard to say where the Clunkers program falls on the spectrum of Washington economic policies that, these days, run in a narrow span from the thoroughly asinine to the merely ill-considered.  Start with the focus on cars.  What strange, narrow-minded obsession with the internal-combustion engine made Congress only pay people to buy new automobiles?  Why aren't they paid to buy appliances, TVs and sofas?  To go out to eat, and to buy business suits, bluejeans and lingerie?  Are all of these consumer activities inherently less worthy than trading in a 1999 Dodge Caravan for a Chevy Cobalt? Senate clears $2 billion "clunkers" extension.  The U.S. Senate approved and sent to the White House on Thursday a $2 billion extension of the "cash for clunkers" autos sales incentive program.  The measure, approved by 60 to 37, extends the successful program that has raised sales of the U.S. auto industry.  President Barack Obama was expected to sign it quickly. Little Bitty Bang, Bang.  Here's an idea:  Let's give $50,000 to anyone looking to upgrade to a brand spanking new, environmentally friendly home.  All we ask in return is that you burn your previous residence into a heap of smoldering cinder.  That's the concept behind the bizarre "cash for clunkers" program so many people are deeming a success.  It's so successful, in fact, that Congress will increase funding for it by 200 percent. Cash for Hummers:  Taxpayers Foot the Bill for Guzzler Upgrades.  When the House passed the $2 billion addition to "Cash for Clunkers" last week, President Obama touted the environmental benefits of the soon-to-be $3 billion taxpayer funded program, promising it will "help lessen our dangerous dependence on foreign oil, while reducing greenhouse gas emissions and improving the quality of the air we breathe." Vote for the Clunkers.  The biggest trade out there seems to be selling the Ford Explorer and buying the Ford Focus. Of the top-five-purchased higher-mileage cars that qualify, Toyota has three, the Corolla, Prius, and Camry.  The Prius is made overseas, but the other two are manufactured mostly in the United States.  The No. 3 trade, the Honda Civic, is made in Indiana, while the Dodge Caliber and Chevrolet Cobalt rank in the top 10.  Yes, as for the Chevy, it is a little bizarre that the government that owns General Motors Corp. is in effect paying itself.  So it goes. Vote for the Clunkers.  The biggest trade out there seems to be selling the Ford Explorer and buying the Ford Focus. Of the top-five-purchased higher-mileage cars that qualify, Toyota has three, the Corolla, Prius, and Camry.  The Prius is made overseas, but the other two are manufactured mostly in the United States.  The No. 3 trade, the Honda Civic, is made in Indiana, while the Dodge Caliber and Chevrolet Cobalt rank in the top 10.  Yes, as for the Chevy, it is a little bizarre that the government that owns General Motors Corp. is in effect paying itself.  So it goes. Cash for Clunkers.  Just when you thought the wizards in Washington couldn't distort the economy any more, along comes the "cash-for-clunkers" program.  Spending billions of tax dollars to bribe people to buy new cars is always a silly idea, but it's especially ludicrous with unemployment near 10% and the federal budget deficit near $2 trillion.  What's especially ironic is that the allegedly "green" program will barely put a dent in carbon dioxide emissions.  Cash-for-clunkers is a loser even on its own terms. Where clunkers go to die.  To help the auto industry and clean up the environment a little bit, the government is paying up to $4,500 to people who agree to buy a new, more fuel-efficient vehicle while turning in their beater.  The catch is that the dealer has to certify that the trade-in never hits the street again.  And so, the mechanics at Jennings had to set aside their version of the Hippocratic oath and raise three otherwise drivable cars up on the lift and then put them to sleep. Cash For Clunkers just does not make sense to us.  If you'd like an eye-opening experience stop by your local auto dealer (it will be more efficient if you pick your Toyota or Honda dealer) and take a look at the "clunkers" that are being destroyed in the Cash For Clunkers program.  Many are perfectly good cars, trucks and even SUV's.  Even though many are in fine running condition and some get pretty good gas mileage, they have to be destroyed by the dealers in order to qualify for the government money.  It seems like such a waste. Of Course Cash for Clunkers Was Going to Work!  Cash for Clunkers is using our tax money to help one industry over others.  Money from the local plumber shop, hair stylist, or hardware store is being used to help a business down the street.  Auto repair shop owners and employees, who make their living fixing old cars, may see a drop in business because the government is using tax money to prop up their parent industry.  The Cash for Clunkers program is just one more step in the liberal effort to bail out the UAW.  The UAW spent $1.98 million to help elect Democrats in the last election and spent another $4.87 million in independent expenditures to help Obama become president.  What did the United Auto Workers get for all of their campaign spending?  Well, they succeeded in placing thousands of their members on the public dole.  Despite their involvement in helping bring down their parent companies, the UAW (thanks to the Obama administration) owns part of these companies. Did someone mention the UAW? Charles Krauthammer on cars for clunkers, and the clunker health care for bills:  Yes, it is stimulative, and I'm not particularly against it.  However, number one, why autos?  I mean, after all, we're already putting $80 billion into auto and subsidies.  Why not furniture?  The housing industry is dying.  Why not get cash for couches.  But secondly, here's the real problem.  The liberals in the Congress have insisted that the cars that you trade in have to be scrapped in two days, turned into a block of steel.  That's it.  You cannot keep the car or use it as parts, which means there's going to be artificially imposed scarcity of used cars and parts, which means that poor people, immigrants, students, young people who need a starter car are going to have higher prices. Vehicle trade-in program a clunker.  An Associated Press story on Friday [8/7/2009] indicated that the Senate voted to refuel the "popular" cash for clunkers program with an additional $2 billion, meaning more people will be able to trade in their old gas guzzlers for new, more fuel-efficient vehicles.  The word "popular" ... is in quotes because it is not true.  The program no doubt is popular with those who qualify to trade in their older model vehicles and receive up to $4,500 so that they can buy new fuel-efficient vehicles.  But it is not popular with the general population. When Precision Is Only 92.11567% Accurate:  Pity the owner of a 1987 Plymouth Sundance. ... Someone hoping to dump an '87 Sundance in the cash-for-clunkers program was shocked recently when the Environmental Protection Agency re-checked fuel economy figures.  In the new math, some Sundances got 19 miles per gallon, just ahead of the clunker-cutoff of 18.  It and 77 other cars were bumped from the bad-enough-for-cash list. More Trouble in Cash for Clunkers?  The program started late, cost $50 million to administer, crashed computers and ran out of money.  All to see people spend money now that they would likely have spent later. ... [Now some auto] dealers say they're counting on the money to cover expenses and that payments aren't coming as quickly as the government had promised. Dealers wait for 'cash for clunkers' payments.  The slow payments coming from the federal government are reinforcing the paradoxical nature of the program for dealers:  It has generated the most showroom traffic they have had in months while at the same time heaping unease, frustration and worry onto the industry's worst-ever downturn.  As of the close of business Friday [8/14/2009], there was talk in the industry that some dealers are considering pulling out of the clunkers program altogether. Auto Dealers Paid for Just 2% of 'Clunkers' Claims.  The federal government has only reimbursed auto dealers for 2 percent of the claims they've submitted through the popular "cash for clunkers" program, a Pennsylvania congressman said, calling on the Obama administration to help speed up the process.  Rep. Joe Sestak, D-Pa., called for "immediate action" to address the problem in a statement Sunday [8/16/2009], after writing a letter to President Obama Saturday expressing his concerns. NY dealers pull out of clunkers program.  Hundreds of auto dealers in the New York area have withdrawn from the government's Cash for Clunkers program, citing delays in getting reimbursed by the government, a dealership group said Wednesday [8/19/2009]. GM's $4,000 Car We Won't Get:  The proposed $4,000 car costs less than the government's loathsome "cash for clunkers" giveaway — which forces some taxpayers to subsidize the "purchase" (loosely used) of a new car by others.  Instead of ripping off one group of taxpayers to provide a government giveaway to another set of taxpayers, GM's $4,000 car would represent honest productive effort, free exchange — goods produced by a market that freely consents to buy them. 'Cash for clunkers' won't be running much longer, government says.  The government will announce a plan as soon as today [8/20/2009] for winding down its popular but problem-plagued "cash for clunkers" program.  The announcement by Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood came as a New York dealership group said that hundreds of its members had stopped doing clunker transactions because of delays in getting reimbursed by the federal government. It couldn't happen to a more deserving group of people. Cash For Clunkers Leaves Dealers in the Lurch .  Politicians have been quick to crow about the success of the Cash for Clunkers program and its stimulative effect on automotive sales, and compared with dumping over $80 billion into AIG's black hole, I suppose Clunkers seems like a home run. ... But most of the auto dealers have been left trying to get reimbursed by the hastily conceived bureaucracy. 'Clunkers' Program Benefits Foreign Automakers More, Data Shows.  The Obama administration has declared the wildly popular 'Cash for Clunkers' program a success, saying it has revived the country's ailing auto industry and taken polluting vehicles off the road.  But the data shows that the program, which ends Monday [8/24/2009], has apparently benefited foreign automakers more than their U.S. counterparts. The Editor says... "Polluting vehicles?" Nobody said the vehicles were polluters, necessarily -- just that they were old and used a lot of gasoline. U.S. adds clerks to clear clunkers.  The U.S. Transportation Department, billions of dollars behind in paying "cash-for-clunkers" rebates, has hired private contractors and solicited volunteers from the Federal Aviation Administration and its own executive ranks to work overtime to clear the backlog. A Multi-Billion Dollar Clunker of a Program.  Paying people to destroy perfectly good cars.  That is Congress and the president in action.  It turns out that "Cash for Clunkers," which mercifully ends at 8 pm today [8/24/2009], doesn't do much for the environment — contrary to claims made when the legislation was approved. All Clunkered Out.  The Transportation Department is ending its "cash for clunkers" program today, but the deadline shouldn't pass without recording a few economic and political lessons.  To wit, the feds can't even give away money very well.  The $3 billion plan is being hailed in Washington as a great success ... But it's hardly miraculous that some Americans would be willing to apply for "free" money to do what they probably would have done eventually anyway. Classic Obamanomics:  CFC pumps up GM while stifling small business. Cash for Clunkers puts the brakes on used car sales.  Roy McDonald, a salesman with Levis Used Car Clearance Center in Slidell, can't wait for the Cash for Clunkers program to end.  "It's our worst month ever.  It's killing us," McDonald said.  "Customers are not even coming to the used car lot.  They're going straight to new cars." How Cash For Clunkers Failed American Taxpayers.  Today, let us celebrate the end of an unjustifiable drain on the US taxpayer:  the Cash for Clunkers (C4C) program.  True, C4C greatly boosted the number of consumers visiting car dealers.  Doubtless, some new cars were sold to consumers who thought they had a clunker to trade in but, on discovering it didn't qualify, they bought a new car regardless. Feds skewed Clunkers results.  An analysis of purchasing data conducted by Edmunds.com found that the top models purchased under the Cash for Clunkers program were not small foreign cars as government data suggested, but SUVs.  The government data separates models by engine and transmission type; Edmunds does not. Clunkers' Tab So Far:  $2.58 Billion.  With the deadline for the government's "Cash for Clunkers" program now just hours away, the Department of Transportation says the total requests for "clunkers" rebates are up to at least 625,000 at a value of $2.58 billion... Turns out that the $4500 "cash for clunkers" rebate is taxable.  The rebate will be taxed as regular income which means — with no payroll deductions — most of the buyers will have a nice, healthy tax bill next year. Seven lessons of Cash-for-Clunkers' failure:  It's over, finished, done.  And quiet returns to the auto showrooms of America.  Cash-for-Clunkers has outlived its funding.  But left us with a host of useful lessons.  First, government forecasters are really bad at their job.  The program was originally funded with $1 billion of taxpayer money to cover rebates of $3,500-$4,500 on cars traded in for more fuel-efficient models, and the money was expected to last for about six months.  It lasted for one week. "Clunkers" Another Botched Performance by the Change Gang.  In yet another dismal performance by the Obama Change Gang, the much ballyhooed "cash for Clunkers" debacle actually hurt sales of goods other than autos in the U.S. economy. Clunkers' Drives Insurance Business Higher.  The "Cash for Clunkers" program may be over but the great deals consumers thought they received may be offset somewhat by higher insurance premiums on their new vehicles. After the Clunker Party, an Auto Sales Hangover.  U.S. government rebates helped Ford, Honda, Hyundai, and others post dramatic gains.  But some of those car sales were pulled from coming months. The economic illiteracy behind Cash for Clunkers.  The government paid car owners to trade in their old cars, which will be destroyed.  But the government is running a deficit.  So it doesn't have $3 billion to hand out.  It must borrow the money, which reduces the amount of money for other investments.  Moreover, the government must raise taxes in the future to pay back the principal and interest -- or the Federal Reserve will monetize the debt through inflation.  Either way, we pay. Spreading the Taxpayers' Green.  [The Cash for Clunkers program destroyed] some of the finest luxury cars ever built.  Among the list of "gas-guzzlers" that had their engines destroyed were a 1997 Bentley Continental R (once valued at $300,000), a '97 Aston Martin DB7 Volante (that once stickered at $135,000), a 1999 Mercedes C43 AMG, a rare 1987 Buick GNX (only 547 were built), and 131 Chevy Corvettes.  Car enthusiasts will cringe at the thought that these precious used cars were crushed by order of Pelosi & Company.  But they had to be destroyed.  They had sinned against the planet. Exotic clunkers also got the crunch under program.  A few weeks back, the owner of [a] Continental R decided it wasn't worth more than $4,500, had its engine destroyed and shipped it to a junkyard with the rest of America's clunkers.  It's one of several rare or surprisingly new vehicles destroyed under the Obama administration's cash for clunkers program designed to sweep old gas guzzlers off U.S. roads. Obama Makes U.S. Taxpayers Bail Out Foreigners.  [Scroll down slowly]  Similarly, the so-called "Cash for Clunkers" program also turned into a foreign boondoggle. ... Initial data collected indicate that more than half of the vehicles sold, each underwritten by a $3,500-$4,500 taxpayer subsidy, were in fact foreign brands.  Indeed GM, now dubbed Government Motors, accounted for only 18% of the cars sold under the program.  Thus the massive $3 billion federal subsidy program has actually done more to revive Japanese and Korean rather than American automakers. GM's US sales crash 45 percent in September.  General Motors saw US sales crash in September, falling 45 percent in the wake of the expiration of the popular government-funded "Cash for Clunkers" program, the automaker said Thursday [10/1/2009]. If Obama Had Told Us Before His Election.  If Barack Obama had campaigned on what he has actually done in his first 300 days in office, would he have been elected? ... If Obama had told us he would spend $3 billion in a Cash for Clunkers program that would use taxpayers' funds to buy mostly foreign cars and grind up the used American cars traded in to make them unusable, would he have been elected? Dealers say federal clunkers program has made cheap, used vehicles harder to find.  In her search for a cheap, used minivan for her and her husband, Krissy Dieroff has visited seven dealerships across Berks and Schuylkill counties in the last week, but to no avail.  "There's not much to pick from, and the ones we do find are overpriced," said Dieroff of Auburn, Schuylkill County, while browsing the lot of a city dealership on Monday [10/19/2009]. Recyclers want more time to dispose of clunkers.  Trade-ins from the Cash for Clunkers program are piling up and auto recyclers are seeking more time to meet the deadline for disposing of all those vehicles. Hit and Run.  Some recyclers still need months to strip thousands of clunkers before they send the last of the steel carcasses to the crusher.  Other than the recycling story, there has been little journalistic follow-up of Cash for Clunkers (C4C).  The business media has written about the economic lunacy of the C4C program, but the Obama media seems suspiciously quiet about its final results. The White House Stupidly Goes To War With Car Website Edmunds.com.  It is an odd, and we'd say regrettable, pattern of this White House that it lets itself get dragged down into fights with specific media outlets. ... But in addition to Fox News, now The White House is going after highly-respected and influential car site Edmunds.com. 'Clunkers' critique draws fire from White House.  The White House lashed out again Thursday [10/29/2009] at a media outlet, calling the automotive site Edmunds.com "wrong (again)" for saying that the "cash for clunkers" program cost too much money and had little lasting impact on car sales or the economy. Clunkers:  Taxpayers paid $24,000 per car.  A total of 690,000 new vehicles were sold under the Cash for Clunkers program last summer, but only 125,000 of those were vehicles that would not have been sold anyway, according to an analysis released Wednesday [10/28/2009] by the automotive Web site Edmunds.com. Edmunds.com Responds to White House Comments.  Today [10/29/2009] the Department of Transportation and White House chose to respond to an analysis Edmunds.com released Wednesday that looked at auto sales this year and what sales volumes would have been had the popular Cash for Clunkers program never existed.  At issue is one point of the analysis showing the taxpayer cost for every incremental vehicle sold was $24,000. Cash for Clunkers Results Finally In.  Nearly 690,000 vehicles were sold during the Cash for Clunkers program, officially known as CARS, but Edmunds.com analysts calculated that only 125,000 of the sales were incremental.  The rest of the sales would have happened anyway, regardless of the existence of the program. White House, Edmunds in war of words over 'clunkers'.  The White House said the influential automotive news Web site Edmunds.com's harsh analysis of the impact of "cash for clunkers" was "faulty" and "implausible."  Edmunds CEO Jeremy Anwyl shot back that the White House was "shooting the messenger."  Edmunds said cash for clunkers cost taxpayers $24,000 per vehicle sold. Clunker pickups traded for new pickups.  The most common deals under the government's $3 billion Cash for Clunkers program, aimed at putting more fuel-efficient cars on the road, replaced old Ford or Chevrolet pickups with new ones that got only marginally better gas mileage, according to an analysis of new federal data by The Associated Press.  The single most common swap — which occurred more than 8,200 times — involved Ford 150 pickup owners who took advantage of a government rebate to trade their old trucks for new Ford 150s. Old Truck For New Truck the Most Common Cash-For-Clunker Trade.  Of the thousands of Americans who took advantage of the government's $3 billion Cash for Clunkers program, most reportedly replaced old pickup trucks with new ones.  A high percentage of the new trucks purchased in the program, designed to put more fuel-efficient cars on the road, get "only marginally better gas mileage" than the ones they replaced, according to an Associated Press analysis. Clunkers II -- the sequel Latest in Stimulus:  'Cash for Refrigerators'.  A $300 million cash-for-clunkers-type federal program to boost sales of energy-efficient home appliances provides a glimmer of hope for beleaguered makers of washing machines and dishwashers, but it's probably not enough to lift companies such as Whirlpool and Electrolux out of the worst down cycle in the sector's history. 'Clunkers' Sequel Rattles Appliance Producers.  The cash-for-clunkers program was so successful in getting Americans to buy new cars that it ran out of money early.  Now, a sequel, dollars-for-dishwashers, is coming to an appliance store near you. Federal 'cash for appliances' program should spur sales.  Did you recently trade in that old clunker for a new car?  OK, so how are you fixed for a new refrigerator?  Or maybe a new dishwasher or heat pump?  Brace yourself.  A federal "cash for appliances" program is likely on its way to a store near you before the end of the year. Cash For America?  If there were any doubts that America is headed for a complete nanny-state, socialist government just read the global warming bill recently passed by the house or any portion of the health care legislation proposed by congress and the Obama administration.  The prelude to a new and improved socialist America is evidenced by an $8,000 federal tax credit to buy a home, an up to $4,500 government rebate to buy a car if the trade involves remitting an environmentally "unfriendly" clunker, and now the Obama administration is proposing another government program to give everyone up to a $200 rebate for purchasing energy efficient appliances. Possibly even Clunkers III Cash for Clubbers.  We thought cash for clunkers was the ultimate waste of taxpayer money, but as usual we were too optimistic.  Thanks to the federal tax credit to buy high-mileage cars that was part of President Obama's stimulus plan, Uncle Sam is now paying Americans to buy that great necessity of modern life, the golf cart. Jump to Corporate Average Fuel Economy (CAFE) standards. Jump to Pork barrel politics. Jump to President Obama -- Year One. Jump to the Obama Index Page. Back to the Home page Nothing on this page shall be construed as an attempt to influence any political campaign on behalf of any candidate for public office or any political party.

Document location http://www.akdart.com/obama122.html Updated November 7, 2009. Page design by Andrew K. Dart  ©2009