Grassley: GM Didn't Really Pay U.S. Back

The lack of transparency and the hiding of facts is more then just annoying, it is downright wrong. GM makes a huge announcement the mainstream media (MSM) covers in glowing terms that they paid back the Government for their loans in full. Then the facts are brought out by Senator Grassley (R-IA) and we hear crickets chirping out of the MSM.

Turns out that according to Senator Grassley that GM repaid their TARP loans using other TARP money. To us that means GM used tax dollars to pay back their loans not profits from selling their cars. If we have to choose between Senator Grassley and what he has discovered and what GM is saying, we will stand with Sen Grassley any day of the week. We wouldn't trust GM executives if they told us the sky was blue because we would go check.

Where is the transparency that Obama and the Democrats keep touting. Maybe they have a separate definition for the word transparent then everyone else. For those Democrats who don't understand the meaning of transparent, we are happy to provide the Webster's dictionary meaning:

a. free from pretense or deceit: frank b. easily detected or seen through : obvious c. readily understood d. characterized by visibility or accessibility of information especially concerning business practices- Synonym - see clear

It is perfectly clear to the vast majority of Americans that the Democrats have no intention of making this a transparent administration and congress as they continue their back door deals. Now Government Motors has joined in being less than honest on where their money came from to pay back the loan.

We do have one question. If they took TARP funds from one account to pay another account, don't they still owe the loans? Or is that too complicated for the Treasury Secretary to answer? We are waiting to hear the answer back to Senator Grassley.

Grassley: GM Didn't Really Pay U.S. Back

Friday, 23 Apr 2010 11:18 PM

A Republican senator is questioning General Motors’ claim that it has repaid its taxpayer-funded loans in full.

Sen. Chuck Grassley is asking Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner to justify those claims.

According to the Iowa Republican, GM has repaid its TARP (taxpayer-funded bailout) loans using other TARP funds.

The automaker – which is 61 percent owned by the U.S. and 12 percent owned by Canada -- announced on Wednesday that it has fully repaid the $6.7-billion in loans it received from the U.S. and Canadian governments.

“GM is able to repay the taxpayers in full, with interest, ahead of schedule, because more customers are buying vehicles like the Chevrolet Malibu and Buick LaCrosse we build here in Fairfax,” said GM Chairman Ed Whitacre during a visit to an auto plant in Fairfax, Kansas on Wednesday.

But as the Associated Press reported, GM received a total of $52 billion from the U.S. government and $9.5 billion from the Canadian and Ontario governments as part of its bankruptcy reorganization. The U.S. considered $6.7 billion of the $52 billion as a loan.

In fact, GM still owes $45.3 billion to the U.S. and $8.1 billion to Canada, money it received in exchange for shares in the company. GM said it hopes to repay those amounts with an eventual public stock offering, the AP reported.

“It looks like [GM’s] announcement is really just an elaborate TARP money shuffle,” Grassley said in an April 22 letter to Treasury Secretary Geithner. “The repayment dollars haven’t come from GM selling cars but, instead, from a TARP account at the Treasury Department.”

Grassley pointed to the most recent quarterly report from Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general for TARP.

Barofsky testified before the Senate Finance Committee this week that the funds GM used to repay its TARP debt are not coming from GM earnings.

“Instead, GM seems to be using TARP funds from an escrow account at Treasury to make the debt repayments,” Grassley said. The senator noted that according to Barafsky's testimony, "Treasury had supervisory authority over GM’s use of these TARP escrow funds."

Grassley questioned whether the Treasury Department is being straightforward with taxpayers about its management of the $700-billion taxpayer-funded bailout programGrassley has been an outspoken critic about the lack of transparency with how TARP funds have been used. Last fall, he cosponsored legislation to end the program.

Source: CNSNews.com