Find Reviews by Make:
What do you make of this, then: “We do not have a specific target in terms of years, The mere issuance of that blueprint, we believe, would be market disruptive.” So sayeth Ron Bloom, leader of the Presidential Task Force on Automobiles and architect of Uncle Sam’s $100 billion plus GM/Chrysler bailout. Ron was testifying to the Senate Banking Committee re: the Obama administration’s timetable to extricate the government from the domestic automotive industry. But wait! That’s all! The government will divest itself of its 60 percent stake in GM “as soon as is practicable,” Bloom said, but “I certainly by no means would say that I am confident that will occur.” What? EVER?
41 Comments on “Feds’ Surprise GM C11 Exit Strategy: There Isn’t One!...”
Read all comments
So its ok to have a withdrawal date from the Iraq war.
But telling people when you’ll stop owning a car company can cause problems?
Wow JUST WOW.
Quagmire.
Oh, hey.. a belt-fed Browning Automatic Rifle? Sweet! ( I stand corrected. Thank you Mr. W.C.Montgomery.)
Wait, what was the post about..? Oh. Right.
Carry on.
@michael1980:
Well said. Ditto.
Market-Disruptive? Everything they have done is Market Disruptive, so what’s the problem with disrupting the market one more time and telling us the truth?
But, uncertainty regarding the future of GM isn’t market disruptive? I thought that was what the government was trying to do remove “uncertainty” about the US auto industry.
MIERDA!!!!!!!
No objective to pursue? And they call themselves “leaders”?
GM and Chrysler will cease to be wards of the all-powerful Oz – I mean – state, when (if) we ever replace the assclowns now in charge with national leaders who can actually not only read the words of the United States Constitution, but actually fathom their true, simple meaning.
Look for GM and Chrysler to be sold off (cheap) some time after 2012. If they (or the United States) can survive that long.
As has been said so often recently: Meet the new boss, same as the old boss.
Hope – as in all consumers really have to hold onto while the gov’t further screws up and already FUBAR’d situation.
Change – as in none. This is exactly the leadership style that got GM to go bankrupt. No accountability, no risk taking, no leadership.
So, how does the gov’t not have an extraction date, but has another guy say this:
Task force says no more automaker money:
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/31212572/
It’s a perpetual jobs program.
As long as there are jobs to protect, profits are unnecessary, and taxpayer help is always at the ready since GM is “too big to fail”.
Um, isn’t this what most posters on this site already thought? Why would we be shocked by it?
While the rest of y’all work yourselves into a lather, I’m willing to give Bloom the benefit of the doubt that he meant to put “when” between “confident” and “that”.
@ jkross22,
The operative quote from Bloom in that article, “You never say never in this world,”
Anyone want to bet that when the IMF/Europe/China bail us out, they will require our “leadership” replaced, similar to what Obama did with GM?
That would be the ultimate appropriate finish to the US — US becomes a corporation bought & controlled by foreign interests. Taxpayers become “clients” & “customers” of the new US government.
Even funnier would be if England acquires a large ownership share. 1600-1700’s all over again?
Looks like a reguar old M60 to me, not a BAR.
Well, the British government didn’t have an exit strategy for British Leyland and that worked out just…..oh wait…. never mind…
menno :
GM and Chrysler will cease to be wards of the all-powerful Oz
Thanks bro’, only a strong personal sense of control kept me from spitting cottage cheese all over the screen.
Bunter
Once they announce a goal for GM, things will make more sense…
Keep in mind that they might never have one to announce.
Patience, Grasshopper.
Ah, but didn’t he say that they don’t expect to have to put in any more money and that there was a good chance we would get all or most of the (current) tab back?
See? It’s alright then.
I’m so relieved, I bet you guys feel better also.
Hakuma Miata…
Bunter
PS-William C.-think your right on the M60
No surprise at all. That’s precisely why we need a total boycott.
Government Motors is a giant slush fund, and a new pipeline for pork, vote-buying regionalism, social engineering, and envirofascism. Lawyers and other liberal supporters of all stripes will be lined up at the trough. This was the goal from the get-go. The ONLY way to stop this is to force Washington to shut it down.
I seem to always be several years ahead of the curve – sometimes I feel like I was born too early, or something…
I started my personal boycott of GM in 1999 after owning/buying a new 1997 Chevrolet Cavalier.
I started my personal boycott of Chrysler in 2002 after owning/buying a new 1999 Dodge Neon to replace said Cavalier.
Even in politics. I “gave up” on the two major US parties in 1980 and haven’t looked back.
Eventually people will catch up to my positions in cars & politics, I think.
Boycott GM & Chrysler! Don’t re-elect/elect any Democrats nor Republicans!
So its ok to have a withdrawal date from the Iraq war.
When did Bush set a withdrawal date from Iraq? Were people demanding a withdrawal date 10 days after the invasion?
On the other hand, I recall reading in today’s local paper that the government will not be committing any additional funds to either company (sorry, can’t find the link).
A deadline for pulling out will only encourage our enemies to wait us out and the terrorists win.
What we need now is a surge. More bailout bucks!
# long126mike :
June 11th, 2009 at 12:37 pm
So its ok to have a withdrawal date from the Iraq war.
When did Bush set a withdrawal date from Iraq?
———————————————
Very true. There is a withdrawal date from the Iraq war. And there will be a withdrawal date from GM.
Just that it takes a different president.
You (the people) can shut Government Motors down in 4 years, if you really want to.
Yes, geeber, I saw it too (re: gov’t saying “no more money for YOU” to Gov’t Motors and Chrapster-Fiat).
However, like virtually everything they say, they’re lying through their teeth. Which is doubly depressing since that means we know the imbeciles in Washington therefore will be pouring money into Detroit like there’s no tomorrow…
On the other hand, I read something interesting the other day about how is it that the Congress had a 9% or was it 6% approval rating recently, the lowest ever; yet as soon as “something goes wrong” in someone’s life, we Americans go crying to Uncle Sugar to “save us”.
Major disconnect, there, if you think about it. *
Perhaps we Americans are even more infantile (or teenager-ish/never frickin’ grew up) than I had previously considered… isn’t it just like a spoiled Western sillivization teenager to hate their parents (“authority figures”) yet go crying to momma when something goes awry?
Trust me when I tell you I’d much rather be around the teen age youth of my Mennonite Christian friends, as well as the children and adults too. I’ve never met a more sane group of people, and admire them greatly.
We could collectively learn an awful lot…
* the second major disconnect is that people continue to elect the same people who they give a 6-9% approval rating to! What the heck?! Which goes back to what I’ve been saying for 30 years. Albert Einstein said it best; one definition of insanity is doing the same thing over and over, and expecting a different result. My point is; stop voting in the people you don’t think do a good job. Since we keep going back & forth between the two major parties, ergo – therefore – STOP ELECTING REPUBLICANS AND DEMOCRATS!!! See? Logic works!
njoneer :
June 11th, 2009 at 1:10 pm
A deadline for pulling out will only encourage our enemies to wait us out and the terrorists win.
———————————————-
Where do the “terrorists” come? You just gave birth to them?
Saddam was a dictator, but not a terrorist. Not even according to GWB.
The forces that attack American forces are not terrorists, because they are not targeting civilians. Same with German force in WW2 (actually they do target civilians, but since they are Caucasian, I guess they can’t be terrorists).
Those who blow up Iraqi civilians are not terrorists to the U.S. because no American is hurt.
Nice, I’ll be paying for the GM OM product I own today for the rest of my life!
And since we’re mentioning exit strategy analogies, the cost of Bush/Cheney military adventures through the end of this fiscal year directly added $2.7 TRILLION to the public debt, before interest, and not accounting for those policies’ inflationary effect on energy prices.
Yet somehow $50 billion as a hedge against the collapse of a $14 trillion/yr economy is imprudent?
More people should study systemic cost/benefit analysis before commenting on fiscal and macroeconomic matters.
You (the people) can shut Government Motors down in 4 years, if you really want to.
Why would any patriotic American go out of their way to try and make a lynchpin of our industrial base to fail and put millions in that industry out of work?
Boy, if a left-winger said that sort of thing in 2001 he would have been told to move to Cuba and possibly lynched. Probably still would. Bare minimum he’d be called an America-hating commie.
menno:
My point is; stop voting in the people you don’t think do a good job. Since we keep going back & forth between the two major parties, ergo – therefore – STOP ELECTING REPUBLICANS AND DEMOCRATS!!! See? Logic works!
———————————————–
That’s a good point. But the real problem is that the existing system is designed to give these two party an unfair advantage.
Even if 90% people want change, they don’t know which alternative to choose. MSM are already bought by the two parties, so the alternatives will have a hard time reaching voters.
It’s just like China. Most people are poor and depressed (trust me, those who buy Hummers there are not a majority) and want a democratic system. But whoever brings it up will be thrown into jail. There is just no way to coordinate 1B people to rise at the same time.
About 500, when Mongolians was still ruling. Chinese hid notes in moon cakes and attacked at the same time. And that was the start of the end of the Mongolian Empire.
It’s a battle of information.
long126mike :
June 11th, 2009 at 1:29 pm
Why would any patriotic American go out of their way to try and make a lynchpin of our industrial base to fail and put millions in that industry out of work?
——————————————
I am not against protecting the industrial base. If Russian jets decides to attack that base, I would say use G2A missiles. The mess that’s know as GM, however, is not an industrial base. It’s a soup line. An industrial base is self-sustainable and profitable.
And I am against “putting millions in that industry out of work.” If Obama issues a presidential order to fire workers in a given company, I would truly disagree, because that’s not what a president’s legal power.
But if those workers put themselves out of work. I can only say good luck, but if you really deserved your pay, I don’t see any reason you cannot find a similar job.
*facepalm*
Yep. M60. The front grip, perspective of the photo & not being able to see the back half of the gun threw me off. I should have known the barrel was too short for a BAR.
So much to learn…
elloh7:
I should have known the barrel was too short for a BAR.
+1. I reminds me of my (“GOD, this bitch heavy!”) M60. The scene is Vietnam. Were BAR’s used in ‘Nam?
Hello skor?
—–
GM might have had a chance with a Chrysler liquidation. But now – no way…
I’m not sure. I was under the impression that the BAR was phased out before Vietnam. May still have been in use during the Korean War though. To Google…!
……from wikipedia:
After World War II, the BAR continued in service in the Korean War, and the early stages of the Vietnam War, when the U.S. delivered a quantity of weapons to the South Vietnamese. Quantities of the BAR remained in use by the Army National Guard up until the mid-1970s. Many nations in NATO and recipients of U.S. foreign aid adopted the BAR and used it into the 1990s.
The BAR proved a popular civilian weapon in the U.S., although fully automatic models were greatly restricted in the 1930s, which made them much harder to own and transfer. Importation of machine guns for U.S. civilian transfer was banned in 1968, and U.S. production of machine guns for civilian transfer was banned in 1986. Transferable civilian-owned BAR models remain, however.
Clyde Barrow of Bonnie and Clyde used a shortened BAR (stolen from National Guard armories) during his spree in the 1930s. The six lawmen who killed Bonnie and Clyde used a variant of the BAR called the Colt Monitor in their ambush.
Pete Moran-
+1 !
Hey Lincoln126Mercury the cold war is over. WE Won ! You lost !
Yet somehow $50 billion as a hedge against the collapse of a $14 trillion/yr economy is imprudent?
So you believe that without the $50B granted to GM (let’s not argue about loaning v. granting now), the hedge against the collapse of the US economy would be removed and what exactly would happen???
This faulty assumption is very enlightening.
This faulty assumption is very enlightening.
The fact that it’s a hedge is a faulty assumption? Uh, no. Perhaps you need to reread what I said. When one is making complex decisions in the face of uncertainty, usually a great deal of analysis is performed of costs, benefits, risks, and the probability of those risks manifesting. At the end of the day, decision-makers have to weigh these things and ask themselves if they’re willing to take certain risks by forgoing a certain course of action. Luckily, if the leadership entrusted to make those decisions is relatively wise, they’ll tend to err on the side of caution, particularly in an already fragile situation.
Like many Americans, you have no idea how fragile the world you live in is. Our elders do.
Do-nothingism is the fantasy indulgence of people who don’t have the responsibilities of power.
@scarey
It remains an open question whether the Cold War, and the follow-on role of the U.S. as world policeman, will take down the U.S. as well as the U.S.S.R.