” As for GM, which has placed a burden on all Americans through the greed of its unions and the ineptitude of its managers, it should show some contrition by shutting down both its PAC and its lobbying operation until the company is no longer a ward of the Obama White House.” ‘Get Government Motors out of politics’, The Washington Examiner, October 3, 2010
The United States federal government owns 61 percent of Government Motors. An additional 12 percent is owned by the Canadian government and by the Province of Ontario. This socialist beast is unlikely to change in the foreseable future. Even as GM struggles to make an initial offering of stock to the public, this involves no more than 20 percent of its shares. As the manufacturer of second-rate motor vehicles, with its newest ‘green’ models destined for the dustbin of a none -cap-and-trade world, its future is as dim as its recent past.
So why should we be at all surprised to discover that Government Motors is now blowing taxpayers’ precious dollar bills down the corridors of the Capitol, in an attempt to buy yet greater bail-outs for its future incompetence? Surely this is a predictable implication of replacing laissez-faire with state capitalism? We do not need to re-read Ayn Rand to know that this is the essence of a socialist Hell.
Since receiving billions of dollars in taxpayer support, GM has hired in excess of 20 lobbying firms to carry its begging bowls into the inner sanctum of Congress. Since June 2009, GM has spent $11.3 million lobbying the federal government for new favors. It has dished out $90,000 to 51 supportive politicians to assist them in their re-election campaigns. As those politicians stuff unmarked GM dollar bills into their trouser pockets, so the U.S. taxpayer is ripped off with his own money.
Fool me once, shame on you! Fool me twice, shame on me! Let us hope that American taxpayers vote all recipients of GM campaign funding, left or right, out of office in November 2010. Let us hope, when next time comes round, as it surely will, that a bankrupt GM will be brutally taken down by market forces, not sustained by progressive socialism
Tags: GM lobbies government with taxpayer dollars, state capitalism at its worst, welfare bum take his begging bowl to Congress
October 4, 2010 at 9:48 pm |
These donation laundering machines seem like such a useful structure, I imagine we’ll see a lot more in the future. Japan’s been at this awhile (with e.g. zombie construction companies), it seems to work pretty well for the culprits involved.
Absent voter outrage, every iconic or beloved business that fails seems like a good candidate for such zombification.
October 5, 2010 at 11:05 pm |
There should be a case winding its way through to the SCOTUS which could deliver a death blow to these donation laundering machines (I like that terminology). The lower courts have already provided a death blow… and the whole scheme should be in a death rattle…. let’s just wait and see.
Of course Øbama used thes PACs to launder his political donations. A lot of information has been surfacing about the overseas donors and how the donations were laundered through various PACs. It makes for interesting reading.
October 16, 2010 at 7:01 am |
what you have written is nothing more than crap or blather.
GM is govt controlled. The Øbama Administration ripped off the corporate shareholders funds and handed the company to the UAW. There were other unions that had funds invested and who have been the big losers.
Also, the Øbama Administration was controlling what dealerships could remain open and the ones that had to close, regardless of whether they were viable or not. In the case of the Chrysler dealer it was discoverd that all of the dealers who were Republican donors were being forced to close. The Democrat dealers were left intact even in they were not profitable dealers.
Another point is that GM lied about giving money back to the government.