“Greece and GM: Too weak to fail”
“In the commercial, Whitacre says GM has ‘repaid our government loan in full.’ Rep. Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) noted that GM used government funds to pay back the government: It ‘simply transferred $6.7 billion from one taxpayer-funded TARP account to another.’ The government still owns 60.8 percent of GM’s common equity, and the Congressional Budget Office projects that the government will lose about $34 billion of the $82 billion of TARP funds disbursed to the automotive industry.
When Ryan and two colleagues asked the Treasury Department for clarification, they got this careful reply: ‘Treasury has never suggested that the loan repayment represented a full return of all government assistance.’ A Treasury news release did say ‘GM Repays Treasury Loan in Full.’ The loan is, however, a small part of taxpayer exposure. Under crony capitalism, when government and corporate America merge, both dissemble.
Now American taxpayers also own a little bit of a small nation. They provide the U.S. contribution of 17 percent of the assets of the International Monetary Fund, which is giving Greece $39 billion (the IMF also is contributing $321 billion to a ‘stabilization’ fund for other eurozone nations with debt problems). So the U.S. government, which would borrow 42 cents of every dollar it spends under the president’s 2011 budget, is borrowing to rescue Greece and others from the consequences of their borrowing.” Read more.
“Greece and GM: Too weak to fail”
George F. Will
The Washington Post, May 13, 2010.
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