GM: The Government Isn’t Listening

Two weeks ago, a whopping 70% of Americans said they wanted government to stop giving any more money to failed automakers Chrysler and General Motors.

Only 13% of Americans thought more federal bailouts would work, and only 18% said that the government and the unions would do a good job running GM, according to the Rasmussen Reports survey.

That would seem to send a pretty clear message to U.S. policymakers, right?

Wrong.

Yesterday, President Barack Obama forked over another $4 billion in government loans to the company – with another $30 billion reportedly on the table as part of GM’s “planned” bankruptcy.

As we’ve said before, “Big Brother is Driving …” now more than ever.

And while Obama is saying all the right things (i.e. “we’re going to see a leaner, meaner GM” and “I want to get government out of the auto buisness as soon as possible”), the problem is that we’ve heard all those things before.

It’s just talk.

For example, Obama swore months ago that he was going to get tough on GM and Chrysler, forcing them to either come up with a plan for profitability or face the music and file for bankruptcy.

But then he completely balked, and decided that more bailouts and shared government-union control of the dying behemoths was the proper prescription.

Sure, the “bankruptcy” label will still apply, but this is more like an incredibly expensive government hand-holding.

That’s what’s so frustrating here – it’s not just that bailing out GM and Chrysler is such lousy fiscal and economic policy in the first place (it is), it’s that we once again got flat out lied to as a country.

After dumping in the first $17 billion, America was told that these car makers would either “shape up or ship out” – and that our leaders were at long last going to hold them accountable if they didn’t do so.

It was “do this, or else,” and the public – which was (is) sick and tired of picking up the tab for all this interventionism – applauded the long-overdue Dirty Harry approach.

Now it turns out that our leaders’ definition of “accountability” – at least as it relates to GM – was to put government and the unions in charge all along (screwing over shareholders and dealers) and providing the newly nationalized company with a bailout that’s twice as big as the first one.

Again, that’s not accountability, it’s feeding the delusion that additional government investment – and intrusion – is going to do anything other than pour more money down the drain.

Somebody … make … it … stop …