General Motors Is Taking The Bailouts You Paid For And Leaving The Country

I thought the auto bailouts were a bad idea. If General Motors can run its business in a profitable fashion then it should fail so that it can be replaced with a company that can run itself profitably. But the geniuses in Washington DC don’t see things that way. “Too big to fail.” And what would happen to the poor darlings at the United Auto Workers Union if they didn’t have the domestic auto industry as a host body to feed off of?
So we bailed General Motors out. And you’d at least expect them to spend that money here in America, right? After all, the whole point of the bailouts from the government perspective was economic rescue, right?
Wrong.

Specifically, at a time when the nation’s unemployment rate has soared to levels not seen in decades and GM is cutting thousands of U.S. jobs, the company’s CEO is considering spending millions from its U.S. coffers — fattened by $50 billion in taxpayer aid — on its overseas operations, a possibility that has outraged critics and lawmakers.
“I don’t think most Americans believe that when the taxpayer bailouts were happening it was intended for that purpose,” said Rep. Anthony Weiner, D-N.Y. “It was intended to protect the American economy — not take the money overseas.”
GM’s Chief Executive Fritz Henderson recently announced that the bailed-out automaker might use its U.S. funds to help restructure its European unit Opel, noting that the financing agreements with the Treasury for the $34 billion of bailout funds already spent allow GM to spend any subsequently earned funds as its executives see fit. Some $16 billion remaining after its bankruptcy has strings attached.

This is actually, probably a pretty good business move for them. After all, under Obama and the Democrats, foreign markets are probably much friendlier markets now in terms of taxes and regulations. And given that GM’s biggest problem is inflated labor costs foisted on them by the UAW, and given how cozy a relationship the unions have with Obama, putting a significant chunk of their operations overseas just makes sense.
Really, this is more an indictment of big-government and big-labor than anything else. The bailouts shouldn’t have happened, but this is actually a rational move on General Motors’ part. Though GM, and not Obama and his fellow liberals, will be the target of the political/media backlash.
Just remember: All of this was made possible by the politicians who approved tens of billions of dollars in bailouts for GM.