Taxpayers paid GM and Chrysler $14,000 per car$$, but during “Cash for Clunkers” GM, Ford and Chrysler received an additional $24,000 per sale from the taxpayers.
GM and Chrysler Still
More Than $50 Billion in the Hole
The numbers are terrible but many Americans seem to have forgotten the simplest facts about the takeover of the auto industry and are instead buying into the administration’s line that “He’s saved the U.S. auto industry.” Imagine being able to sell a car while knowing that the first $14,000 of underlying costs were POOF! Magically gone . . . How in hell, can these two auto companies continue to sputter and cough in recovery?
To date the facts are these: Chrysler received $15 Billion in loans; GM received $50 Billion in loans of that $65 Billion total in auto industry goals to-date $15 Billion has been repaid by GM and Chrysler . . . neither company looks particularly healthy and, indeed, Chrysler seems to be on the verge of collapse.
By the way, Chrysler received an auto bailout in 1979 in addition to the 2008 bailout both companies were given. Is there a simple lesson here? You think? Meanwhile, the only viable American auto company, Ford Motors, finds itself between the sword and the wall. On the one hand Ford like all of America is mired in a recessionary environment in which major purchases like cars and houses are not popular decisions. On the other hand that $14,000 safety net below each GM and Chrysler car is a tough nut for a company that received no bailouts to overcome. In short, the American auto industry is facing a crucial year as the 2011 models emerge onto the lots. The likelihood is that Chrysler goes under despite all the government interference and Ford, competing against the two bailed-out entities is also threatened.
One thing, Barack Obama doesn’t want you to think about is this: his “Cash for Clunkers” program achieved the brief pinnacle in sales for the three American auto makers. But what was the cost? Without going into the economics of unnecessarily removing many viable automobiles from the nation’s roads, the cost of Cash for Clunkers (CFC) came to at least $24,000** per car. So between the bailouts and Cash for Clunkers, GM and Chrysler during that two-month period had $38,000 paid them by the government for each car sold. Obama and his people, naturally enough, called “CFC, a wildly successful program.” Much akin to saying the President “saved us^^ from Depression,” it sounds like someone is seriously stretching the truth. Rajjpuut remains highly UNimpressed by the auto bailout and so should any thinking American, like you!
Ya’ll live long, strong and ornery,
Rajjpuut
$$ Actually, by orchestrating and manipulating the two bankruptcies, Barack Obama personally diverted huge amounts of taxpayer money into the United Auto Workers Union (UAW) by giving them a large chunk of ownership of the two ailing auto makers.
** http://money.cnn.com/2009/10/28/autos/clunkers_analysis/index.htm
^^ History will show that Obama’s policies like those of FDR (which extended the dying July, 1933, recession about 8.5 unnecessary years) have done just the opposite: guaranteed a depression
