When it Comes to GM, Believe What They Do, Not What They Say

"The federal government will refrain from exercising its rights as a shareholder in all but the most fundamental corporate decisions," said the President of the United States. "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."

Do you believe these words?

If you do, you are a fool. The government is already dictating which plants are closing, which product lines are being discontinued, and what types of new cars will be built in the future. These are, after all, fundamental corporate decisions of an automaker, right?

How do I know this? I listened to what the president said.

"The original restructuring plans submitted by GM and Chrysler earlier this year did not call for the sweeping changes these companies needed to survive -- and I couldn't in good conscience proceed on that basis. So we gave them a chance to develop a stronger plan that would put them on a path toward long-term viability. ..."

So Mr. Obama fired the head of GM and inserted a "nice guy" who so far has done everything he's been told to do by the president's hand-picked "task force."

GM's management team -- including its new CEO, Fritz Henderson, its interim chairman, Kent Kresa, and all of their colleagues -- have worked -- has worked tirelessly to produce a plan that meets the strict standards I laid out at the beginning: to streamline GM's brands, clean up GM's balance sheet, and make it possible for GM to compete and succeed.

The "strict standards I laid out" included streamlining GM's brands, selling off some of its assets, and ...

As this plan takes effect, GM will start building a larger share of its cars here at home, including fuel-efficient cars.

Forget the fact that selling off the Hummer, which was done today, gets rid of one of the few profitable divisions of GM. Forget, too, that eliminating the Pontiac auto lines gets rid of cars that made up for 23% of GM's annual sales. Forget, three, that GM already makes some fine cars that get great fuel economy, just not enough to please the Left. Let's get busy making those fuel-efficient crap-boxes on wheels!

Obama touched on the need for more taxpayer dollars to GM to save the jobs of roughly 60,000 workers. That's about $500,000 per job, and that doesn't include the previous $20 billion already "loaned" to GM that became the pry-bar to Obama's unprecedented takeover.

I recognize that this may give some Americans pause.

Pause? That's what Aunt Mildred gets when her preacher starts talking about tithing. The Americans I've been talking to are way beyond "pause." We want to hit "rewind" on this presidency. Hell, John McCain couldn't have been this bad! No one even dares think about "fast forward."

We inherited a financial crisis unlike any that we've seen in our time.

Yep. He's blaming George W. Bush again. Not that he doesn't deserve some blame, but when is Obama going to take some responsibility for the worsening economic conditions?

This crisis crippled private capital markets and forced us to take steps in our financial system -- and with our auto companies -- that we would not have otherwise even considered. These steps have put our government in the unwelcome position of owning large stakes in private companies for the simple and compelling reason that their survival and the success of our overall economy depend on it.

I'm sorry. Could any sane person believe he's serious about this? Look at the people Obama has brought into his government. Socialists, progressives ... real "hands on" people. They've been chomping at the bit for years to implement new economic experiments in America. As for the success of our overall economy, it is now highly doubtful that it will survive.

In 1971 President Richard Nixon presided over the creation of Amtrak, as the federal government purchased passenger rail service from private companies that no longer wanted to be in the business. It was a temporary move, Mr. Tricky Dick said, for the public good. Two billion dollars per year in subsidies later and Amtrak is still no closer to being profitable, or private, than it was at that moment.

The federal government has no credibility when it comes to its promises of relinquishing control.

If you know your recent history, then the next paragraph should tell you everything you need to know about Mr. Obama's real intentions:

Understand we're making these investments not because I want to spend the American people's tax dollars, but because I want to protect them. Instead of taking so much stock in GM, we could have simply offered the company more loans. But for years, GM has been buried under an unsustainable mountain of debt. And piling an irresponsibly large debt on top of the new GM would mean simply repeating the mistakes of the past. So we are acting as reluctant shareholders -- because that is the only way to help GM succeed.

Only way? There were a multitude of possibilities, yet he claims it was the "only way"?

How can Mr. Obama claim that he wants to see the federal government get out of GM when he claims that giving them loans would have added to "an unsustainable debt"?

The truth is as simple and as it shocking: he has no intention of Uncle Sam ever getting out of the car business. If $20 billion was unsustainable, then $50 billion is irrecoverable. GM will never achieve the kind of success necessary to attract private capital to "buy out" the federal government, and unless there is a wholesale change in Congress and in the White House, it will never countenance selling GM.

Do not forget that the EPA is dictating the future of all American cars and trucks by jacking up mileage requirements. This is going to make future models unaffordable for many Americans.

Also, do not forget that Cap and Tax -- the anti-Global Warming carbon emissions regulations that the left is so intent on pushing -- will hit Americans in the pocketbook and make everything more expensive, even to the point of driving many industries -- and jobs -- out of the country to countries that are still sane enough not to play this suicidal game.

Finally, if all this were not enough, the federal borrowing under Mr. Obama -- already more in five months than in the past 30 years -- will probably groin-kick our dollar to the point where we will see hyper-inflation that will preclude the possibility of any recovery at GM (or any other firm).

I know it's gloomy, but it's a hell of a lot more realistic than the horse shit being peddled by our president, who despite his condemnations of previous administrations is dragging us into economic disaster at breakneck speed.