Video: The revolutionary auto plant Ford built in Brazil, but can't in America because of the UAW...

Suppliers liens are located in the same plant and integrated into Ford's line.  If a U.S. supplier visits some UAW plants in the U.S. over a quality problem, they can't even pick up one of their defective parts and carry it to the door. A UAW flunky has to do that.

Ford's Joint Venture assembly plant in Brazil

Barney Frank: "the federal government made money on the advances to the banks. What cost us money was the automobile industry bailout."

Barney Frank is finally telling the truth...

Via Newsbusters:

Most of America’s media think President Obama’s 2009 bailout of General Motors and Chrysler was a huge success.
Former Massachusetts Democratic Congressman Barney Frank threw cold water on this meme on NBC’s Meet the Press Sunday correctly informing viewers that the auto bailout lost money for the federal government. By contrast, we made money from George W. Bush’s 2008 bank bailout (video follows with transcript and commentary):
BARNEY FRANK, FORMER CONGRESSMAN (D-MASSACHUSETTS): First of all, many of the banks didn’t want this money. It’s not that we did it for them. But secondly, the federal government made money on the advances to the banks. What cost us money was the automobile industry bailout. But we made money on the banks.
HENRY PAULSON, FORMER BUSH TREASURY SECRETARY: We got all the money back plus $32 billion.
Keep on reading…

Taxpayers to take multibillion-dollar haircut on GM bailout...

Taxpayers hardest hit...

Via FOX News:

The U.S. Treasury plans to sell its stake in General Motors Co over the coming year, all but assuring a multibillion-dollar loss in a move that will end the automaker's "Government Motors" era.

Treasury's plan - a two-step process that includes a $5.5 billion stock sale to GM - is part of a broader push to wind down the controversial financial bailout under the Troubled Asset Relief (TARP) program. TARP was created by former president George W. Bush to prevent the collapse of the U.S. banking industry during the 2007-2009 financial crisis.

The planned GM sale will raise the proceeds that Treasury has recovered to $28.6 billion of the $50 billion bailout GM received. With $20.9 billion left from the original bailout, the government would have to sell its remaining shares at an average price of $69.72 to break even.

Read more here...

Remember the campaign video where Obama claimed they repaid their loans?

A new Barack Obama campaign video narrated by Tom Hanks portrays the president’s bailout of General Motors and Chrysler as courageous and successful — with loans repaid by car companies.

"Because of the tough choices the president made, the stage was set for a resurgent U.S. auto industry," Hanks says in the 17-minute highlights reel of Obama’s presidency, titled The Road We’ve Traveled.

"With business booming, (GM and Chrysler) repaid their loans," he later concludes.

Obama demands fact check about Romney's auto bailout editorial

Here it is. Obama was lying wrong...

Via Mitt Romney’s 2008 NYT op-ed:

IF General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye. It won’t go overnight, but its demise will be virtually guaranteed.

Without that bailout, Detroit will need to drastically restructure itself. With it, the automakers will stay the course — the suicidal course of declining market shares, insurmountable labor and retiree burdens, technology atrophy, product inferiority and never-ending job losses. Detroit needs a turnaround, not a check. [...]

But don’t ask Washington to give shareholders and bondholders a free pass — they bet on management and they lost.

The American auto industry is vital to our national interest as an employer and as a hub for manufacturing. A managed bankruptcy may be the only path to the fundamental restructuring the industry needs. It would permit the companies to shed excess labor, pension and real estate costs. The federal government should provide guarantees for post-bankruptcy financing and assure car buyers that their warranties are not at risk.

In a managed bankruptcy, the federal government would propel newly competitive and viable automakers, rather than seal their fate with a bailout check.

Congratulations: The UAW bailout cost each federal income taxpayer about $357

About 140 million people file tax returns, but only half of them actually owe any federal income tax liability. That makes about 70 million federal taxpayers. Divide that number into the $25 billion cost of the auto UAW bailout and each federal income taxpayer is out about $357.

Washington -The Treasury Department says in a new report the government expects to lose more than $25 billion on the $85 billion auto bailout. That's 15 percent higher than its previous forecast.

In a monthly report sent to Congress on Friday, the Obama administration boosted its forecast of expected losses by more than $3.3 billion to almost $25.1 billion, up from $21.7 billion in the last quarterly update.

The report may still underestimate the losses. The report covers predicted losses through May 31, when GM's stock price was $22.20 a share.

Apparently, the $25 billion loss is a conservative estimate.

New Mitt Romney ad that features an Ohio GM Dealership Owner put out of business by Obama’s taxpayer-funded UAW bailout.

New Mitt Romney ad that features an Ohio GM Dealership Owner put out of business by Obama’s taxpayer-funded UAW bailout.

Clueless: Chris Matthews credits Ford's success to Obama'a auto bailout

Ford wasn't part of the auto bailout.

Via Newsbusters:

CHRIS MATTHEWS: It seems to me one thing that somebody of a business background like Romney, and that’s where he spent his life, making money, should be very good at picking winners, testing business character, who’s got it, who doesn’t have it. Alan Mulally, the head of Ford now, has taken them to number five in the country as a profitable corporation. Ford is back as the number five most profitable company in the country right now.

Again, back to you, John, it seems to me that somebody should have paid attention to the fact that Mulally having this kind of gift and ability to do this kind of thing, and he didn’t bet on him. Obama bet on him.

Obama campaigns on bailing out Detroit, but 55% of Americans think it was a bad idea

Screen shot from here

The term bailout is still toxic.

Via National Journal:

A majority of Americans think the federal government should not have helped out U.S. automakers that were in financial trouble, but rather should have allowed them to go it alone, according to a new United Technologies/National Journal Congressional Connection Poll.

Thirty-six percent of Americans think the government should have provided help, but 55 percent think “these companies should have been allowed to succeed or fail on their own,” the poll shows. The results echo other surveys, including a May 2010 poll conducted by CBS News in which a third of respondents thought the government should have helped, while 61 percent thought they should not have.

Keep on reading…

Obama to dump GM shares at a loss

Last July, Obama went to Detroit and chided critics who claimed we would lose money on the auto bailout.

The president chided naysayers in Washington whom he called ”leaders of the just-say-no crowd.” These critics of the bailout plan, he said, called the U.S. auto companies the worst investment one could make. He said they were too willing to walk away from the ailing businesses and allow them to fail, taking as many as a million jobs with them.

Nine months later, the Obama administration is planning to dump it's GM shares for a $11 billion loss.

The government sale would "almost certainly" mean that US taxpayers would take a loss from a politically controversial $50 billion rescue of the auto giant in 2009, according to the paper.

The government would need to sell its roughly 500 million shares for $53 dollars each in order to break even, but GM's stock is currently hovering at a price of just under $30 per share.

At the current price, the government would lose more than $11 billion, but the Obama administration is willing to accept the loss in order to cut its last ties to the auto manufacturer, the newspaper said, citing unnamed sources.

Toyota thinks Obama is “not industry friendly”

Well, President Obama is certainly very UAW friendly. He has spent close to $100 billion in our tax dollars in an attempt to save GM and Chrysler. This has left the US Government owning the majority of GM and a significant share of Chrysler. When the people who own your competitor get to make recall decisions that can cost billions, it smells bad even if the recall decision is the correct one. On top of this, liberal democrats tend to be 'regulatory happy.' Why wouldn't Toyota, the other transplants and even Ford view the Obama administration in an adversarial way?

Internal Toyota documents derided the Obama administration and Democratic Congress as “activist” and “not industry friendly,” a revelation that comes days before the giant automaker’s top executives testify on Capitol Hill amid a giant recall.

According to a presentation obtained under subpoena by the House Oversight and Government Relations committee, Toyota referred to the “changing political environment” as one of its main challenges and anticipated a “more challenging regulatory” environment under the Obama administration’s purview.

Cash for "Clunkers" Hangover

Cash for "clunkers" cost taxpayers almost $3 billion and caused a spurt in auto sales of mostly foreign vehicles. Most dealers are still waiting to get paid by the government. Meanwhile, showroom traffic has plummeted and dealers are worried.

Like many dealers across the country, the dealership in Ypsilanti Township, Mich., west of Detroit, is suffering from a Cash for Clunkers hangover, and Sales Manager Paul Grahl isn't sure when it will end....

"It was good while it lasted," said Phil Warren, sales manager at Toyota Direct in Columbus, Ohio. "Now we're a little bit concerned about what happens next. The program may have just taken a lot of people out of the market."