You guys are amazing.

Care to explain that vague statement? How are the billions spent on GM different from the trillions we spend on other stuff? How are we going to “suffer” for this?

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.

The plan is to sell the stock back on the market in two years. (Both UAW and Government)

I predict that Warren Buffett & Berkshire Hathaway will be involved.

Again, it’s the Union’s fault.

This is it guys, the markets self-regulate so well, and government intervention is amazing and should be celebrated. WTF, seriously, the whole world has become a big, fuming, mismanaged pile of donkey crap…

So what if the Gov’t owns this POS company for awhile? Hell, private industry is a failure; let’s see what the Gov’t can do with this failing monster.

Private industry has failed us over and over. You Glenn Beck/Limbaugh fans don’t realize the Gov’t has bailed all of us out over and over again.

At least we can keep the Corvette going. The do-nothing Herbert Hoover Repuglicans would just let everything fail around us but give us a tax cut (worthless if you have no income).

The truth is there for the people that really wanna look for it. But most of you obviously don’t. The reasons for all these problems are fundamental, it’s not just a couple people mismanaging a couple major companies. It’s humanities mismanagement of itself.

i think that decision was wise…restructuring is a better solution than calling it quits totally…in the short term, jobs are saved at a time when saving jobs is important, in the long term a leaner and more profitable company can result…getting there isn’t pretty, though…

once you accept that the government won’t allow these companies to die, there are only a few paths you can take…personally, i’m not a fan of selling out to a foreign car company…while i’m surprised that the 15 billion, or whatever the real number is, will be “forgiven”, i’m not surprised the government will have to take control…

i also don’t think the government is taking permanent control…and when i’m proven right you paranoid conspiracy guys owe me beers!

lets just keep this in perspective…the DoD budget is over 500 billion this year alone (war budget not included)…you could float nearly 20 GMs with that kinda scratch…i think folks get uptight over the word “control”, thinking suddenly uncle sam is going to peering up at you when you flip the lid on your crapper when you get home…although i get the feeling some of you would welcome that opportunity ;P

Bye bye GM. Hard to believe the even Chrysler will outlast GM but it will.

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.

SO THE U.S. GOVERNMENT WILL OWN GM. SO WHAT WILL HAPPEN YOU ASK?

THIS HAS HAPPEN BEFORE, AND THE OUT COME IS ALWAYS THE SAME…. LIQUIDATION….

THE U.S. GOVERNMENT WILL SELL OUT ALL OF GENERAL MOTORS…

IT HAS BEN DONE IN THE PAST, AND IT WILL HAPPEN TO GM….

SORRY TO SAY IT BUT ALL YOU CAN ASK FOR IS THAT THE BUYERS KEEP THE BRANDS ALIVE…

At least these clowns didn’t trigger anything and actually produced something tangible.

PS- This is my first post.

I was afraid Barny Frank would become the New CEO of General Motors and I might be right!?((^&$%@

I’m going to go ahead and pre-order a 2011 Chevrolet Obama… or maybe I should wait for the 2012 Buick Pelosi.

This is scary, time to invest is guns and whiskey.