Yet More Proof That Bailouts Never Work

Government Motors continues to flounder and fail:

Last week I [Stephen Spruiell] wrote a piece on five promises to taxpayers that General Motors has broken since taking bailout money. Well, another week, another broken promise:

Here is a question:  You, as a taxpayer, now own a stake in General Motors.  50 billion dollars of taxpayer money was invested in the company.  Now, if the company decides it is in the best interest of their bottom line to invest some of that money overseas, would you be upset?

That's a question being asked of GM today.  GM is using some of the money floated to them by the US government to bolster its operations overseas.  The upset is that part of the justification for investing tax dollars in GM was to create (or save) jobs here in America.

You could argue — and you would be right — that the mistake was to promise to build subcompacts in the U.S. rather than in China in the first place, but, as former car czar Steve Rattner put it (quoting his father), "He who eats my bread sings my song," and right now, Congress wants GM to sing Brooks and Dunn's "Only in America."

I wonder what all those execs of companies that took bailout money are thinking after watching this play out.  I also wonder why any exec at any other company would accept money from the government from this point on.

It seems to be an assurance of disaster.

There's my two cents.