A group of leading conservatives issued the following statement
against Obama’s approach to General Motors:
OBAMA ADMINISTRATION’S UNPRECEDENTED BAILOUT OF GENERAL
MOTORS
PUTS AMERICAN TAXPAYERS ON HOOK FOR $50 BILLION -SO
FAR
With no vote of Congress, not a single public hearing and
private meetings conducted largely by Obama Administration
officials who were never subject to Senate confirmation, the
federal government now owns 60% of one of the world’s largest
multi-national corporations - and American taxpayers will be
left holding the bill for years. The move not only provides
huge potential risks and problems for the government, including
the likely infusion of more capital in the future, but it also
opens the door to micro-management of General Motors by federal
officials and Members of Congress.
TAXPAYERS HAD NO SAY AND
CONGRESS HAD NO VOTE ON ISSUE
In December of last year, Congress chose not to act on
legislation authorizing a federal bailout of the auto industry.
Nevertheless, the Bush administration and now the Obama
administration -without any legislative authority to do so -
has provided General Motors and Chrysler with billions of
dollars from the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program
(TARP), authorized by Congress for buying assets from financial
institutions (not automobile companies). The Constitution and
the rule of law seem to have taken a back seat to political
calculations. Although the President claims he has “no interest
in running GM,” news reports indicate that administration
officials are involved in deciding the types of cars GM is to
build and where their headquarters are to be located.
UNITED AUTO WORKERS OFFICIALS
FAVORED OVER TAXPAYERS AND BOND HOLDERS
The UAW, which provided millions of dollars in campaign funds
and support for the Obama campaign in 2008, received
preferential treatment over other creditors - in the end, a
deal comprised of a whopping $10 billion in cash and a 17.5%
stake in General Motors. Professor Todd Zywicki of George Mason
University Law School offers an observation on this point: “Mr.
Obama may have helped save the jobs of thousands of union
workers whose dues, in part, engineered his election. But what
about the untold number of job losses in the future caused by
trampling the sanctity of contracts today?”
To get an inkling of just how favorably the UAW was treated in
this process, consider that Obama administration officials at
the Treasury Department have claimed a victory for new contract
terms requiring UAW workers to put in 40 hours a week before
getting overtime pay. (That’s the supposed good news.) The bad
news is that UAW workers will still be allowed six unexcused
absences before being fired. One final note that says it all:
UAW President Ron Gettelfinger was an Obama delegate to the
2008 Democratic National Convention.
OVERSIGHT AND ACCOUNTABILITY MUST BE ESTABLISHED TO
PREVENT WASTE FRAUD AND ABUSE OF TAXPAYERS FUNDS AND OBAMA
NEEDS TO SET DATE CERTAIN FOR GM RETURN TO PRIVATE
CONTROL
We call on Congress to instruct the Government Accountability
Office immediately to prepare to take the steps necessary in
order to protect the taxpayers’ 60% interest in General Motors.
We also ask that the Treasury Department Inspector General
establish a special task force to oversee and track the 50
billion dollars of taxpayer money provided to GM and President
Obama to set a date certain for returning the company to
private control.Duane Parde, President, National Taxpayers
Union
The statement was signed by:
James C. Miller III, former Reagan Budget
Director
Grover Norquist, President, Americans for Tax
Reform
Wendy Wright, President, Concerned Women for
America
William Wilson, President, Americans for Limited
Government
Tony Perkins, President, Family Research
Council
David Keene, Chairman, American Conservative
Union
Kenneth Blackwell, former Treasurer, State of
Ohio
Richard Viguerie, Chairman, ConservativeHQ.com
David McIntosh, former U.S. Representative,
Indiana
Herman Cain, President, THE New Voice, Inc.
Fred Smith, President, Competitive Enterprise
Institute
Tim Phillips, President, Americans for
Prosperity
Alfred Regnery, Publisher, American
Spectator
