Why are people complaining? All you people wanted Chapter 11- you got it. If you hate the UAW you wanted to see GM go into bankruptcy. Now they will. Its been known for 6 months that the government would have to fund them in Chapter 11 and ensure they emerge. You got what you asked for.

“@sj79, “Why are people complaining? All you people wanted Chapter 11- you got it.” Yes, but we wanted it from the onset versus now as those who have actually dealt with large bankruptcies know how it works. ”

You are clueless. If GM had declared chapter 11 6 months ago the results woult have been liquidation. Before last fall GM wouldnt even have considered chapter 11 based on sales and revenues. After the banking crisis unfolded financing for Chapter 11 was unavailble from anyone but the government. LAst fall when idiots from the GOP were pushing for bankruptcy the possibility of privately financed DIP was already nonexistent. Banks would NEVER lend GM money for DIP financing under current conditions. The government was always the only choice and those asking for GM to go bankrupt before Bush gave them $13B already knew that which made their “concerns” about saving taxpayer money nothing more than posturing.

The government has lined everything up in advance of Chapter 11 in order to make the process faster and cheaper for taxpayers. Thats been the plan all along. Going into Chap 11 uncontrolled would have been a disaster and the government would’ve had to step in to save what was left of GM in a very drawn out and messy process. Like I said, this is what you wanted and you got it. Accept it. Wagoner and others knew that Chapter 11 was going to be messy and said GM should restructure out of court but the “experts” kept beating the Chapter 11 drum suggesting it would “save” taxpayers money. When GM submitted a report to congress in February they laid out costs to US taxpayers if they went bankrput and the sum was substantial. Everyone ignored that and said “hey, we can fix GM in 2 months if we force them into court” and that’s what happened. GM likely could have survived with $30b-$40B outside of bankruptcy and lived to pay all the money back without government ownership. The ATF didnt support that theory and here we are. This process will cost the government as much as GM’s February out of court proposal.

LLL3:

CAn you read? Apparently you cannot. I never said this was going to be cheap- I said that taxpayer money was going to be spent either way. GM’s financial position was based on contracts and decisions made years ago- few of them were made under Wagoner. In fact, he had done more to undo the damage of the past than any of his predecessors. This notion that they can’t come back without the debts of the past is lunacy at its finest. The entire point of going bankrupt is to quickly shed liabilities that have been dragging down their bottom line for years. It can work but it will cost taxpayers billions. Guess what? Liquidaton was going to cost taxpayers billions as the PBGC absorbed pensions it couldnt handled and hundreds of thousands lost jobs. All that stuff doesn’t come free. On top of that you can rest assured the Feds would have forked over billions to Michigan and other midwestern states that would have been reeling from the collapse of GM, Chrysler, Ford and hundreds of suppliers. In case you forgot (which you did) ford came to DC last year to make it clear that the failure of GM would lead to the failure of suppliers which would’ve led to potential failure of Ford. All of this stuff is connected which is why Bush decided to approved the $17B in December.

AS for GM lving on borrowed time: No jackass that is incorrect. They had negotiated huge concessions from the union and most experts felt that 2010 was the year when they would start to turn around permanently. Once they shed the retirees healthcare costs and got the low wage workers their costs per vehicle would’ve decreased substantially. That entire plan was based on sales remaining relatively steady. Once overall sales fell by 35% last fall all bets were off.

If could chose between spending $600B on Iraq and $40B to help GM survive this recession I would go with GM every time. Dont lecture me about wasted taxpayer dollars when we have poured $600B+ into Iraq with NO return on investment whatsoever.