Jump to content

Did White House Commit Perjury About GM Bailout?


Geee

Recommended Posts

white-house-takes-workers-pensions-and8212-and-lies-about-it.htmInvestors Business Daily:

Cronyism: In recent days, the scope of the Obama White House's cronyism has become shockingly apparent. A trove of emails shows it deprived thousands of workers of their pensions to benefit unions, then lied about it.

The news site The Daily Caller has obtained internal government emails that show the U.S. Treasury Department, led by Timothy Geithner, pushed in 2009 to end the pensions of 20,000 non-union employees of GM's Delphi auto parts unit as part of the auto bailout.

What's truly outrageous is that, while those workers were cheated of their full pensions, union employees of the same Delphi company got their pensions paid.

This financially ruinous favoritism of union workers over nonunion workers is blatantly unfair, illegal and a violation of Constitutional guarantees of equal treatment under the law. And the reason is political.

By its own reckoning, organized labor spent nearly $400 million to get Obama elected in 2008, more by far than any other interest group. So it's no surprise the White House punished nonunion workers and rewarded union members when it came time to "bail out" GM.

Total value of the auto industry bailout to the unions was, by one estimate, $26 billion. For the unions, their $400 million was money well spent indeed.

What's disturbing is it now appears several White House officials may have lied about how this obvious favoritism came about. Looking at the record, Treasury and White House officials appear guilty not just of political malfeasance, but of perjury as well. On this, the Daily Caller's email cache is damning.

Matthew Feldman, a former Treasury Department official, and Ron Bloom, the White House's so-called auto czar, both sat on the Presidential Task Force on the Auto Industry in 2009.

Subscribe to the IBD Editorials Podcast

Under oath, they testified it was the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) — the independent, quasi-governmental insurer of private pension plans — that ended the 20,000 workers' benefits. That doesn't seem to be true, as it turns out.Scissors-32x32.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

The True Costs Of The UAW Bailout

 

 

 

 

The Obama Record: The administration claims to have saved the U.S. auto industry. What it really saved was the industry's dominant union — and it weakened capitalism in the process.

Michigan is one of those light-blue states where Mitt Romney just may have a chance on Nov. 6. Don't be surprised, then, if Barack Obama's re-election campaign carpet-bombs it with ads noting that Romney once said the auto industry should go bankrupt, and that the Obama administration found a better way.

In fact, two of the Big Three automakers did go into bankruptcy under Obama. But it was a bankruptcy like no other before and, we hope, no other to come.

Washington not only used taxpayer money to buy control of General Motors and Chrysler, but it also rewrote the rules on the treatment of creditors.

Superficially at least, the intervention worked, but it hasn't been cheap. GM is back to making a profit, though it is struggling in Europe and once again has lost its No. 1 market share to Toyota. And the perennial problem child Chrysler is now in Fiat's lap.

The administration sold its interest in Chrysler in July 2011, racking up a loss of $1.3 billion. It still holds 26% of GM and is riding the stock price down. With GM shares trading at just over $20, the taxpayer's paper losses are at least $16 billion.

Those are just the obvious costs.

Subscribe to the IBD Editorials Podcast

The government's tweaking of bankruptcy and tax rules freed GM from the usual limits on carrying pre-bankruptcy losses forward. Curt Levey, executive director of the conservative legal group Committee for Justice, estimates that this special tax break adds $18 billion to the cost of the GM deal.

Also, the bailouts would have cost much less if not for the favored treatment given to the United Auto Workers. According to analysis by the Heritage Foundation's James Sherk and George Mason University law professor Todd Zywicky, the UAW giveaways were worth about $26 billion.

Scissors-32x32.png

 

http://news.investors.com/article/621358/201208071855/auto-bailout-good-for-uaw-bad-for-capitalism.htm

Link to comment
Share on other sites

white-house-takes-workers-pensions-and8212-and-lies-about-it.htmInvestors.com:

 

Cronyism: In recent days, the scope of the Obama White House's cronyism has become shockingly apparent. A trove of emails shows it deprived thousands of workers of their pensions to benefit unions, then lied about it.

 

The news site The Daily Caller has obtained internal government emails that show the U.S. Treasury Department, led by Timothy Geithner, pushed in 2009 to end the pensions of 20,000 non-union employees of GM's Delphi auto parts unit as part of the auto bailout.

 

What's truly outrageous is that, while those workers were cheated of their full pensions, union employees of the same Delphi company got their pensions paid.

 

This financially ruinous favoritism of union workers over nonunion workers is blatantly unfair, illegal and a violation of Constitutional guarantees of equal treatment under the law. And the reason is political.

Scissors-32x32.png

Link to comment
Share on other sites

@Casino67

 

The GOP should make 20,000 different commercials of people shafted by Obama and Geithner in response to the Cancer</>Romney ad.

 

I suspect there are more than a few ready to make a public statement how Obama has reduced the quality of their living.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I think we will see them in due time. I think that maybe they are letting the storm over the Reid nonsense and the cancer ad die down before unleashing their counter-attack ads.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

pollyannaish

I'm going to go out on a limb here an say yes.

 

Oh wait. I should probably read the article, not just the headline, right? ;)

Link to comment
Share on other sites

I'm going to go out on a limb here an say yes.

 

Oh wait. I should probably read the article, not just the headline, right? wink.png

 

 

@pollyannaish

 

One of my taglines on FR used to read

 

First-time reader, long time poster - posting since Oct 5, 2001

wink.png

  • Like 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • 1711635985
×
×
  • Create New...