AP source: GM to repay government loan before June

The amount of misinformation available here is mind-numbing.

1) GM is paying back $6.7 Billion to the Treasury which was held in an Escrow account with the Treasury and not from GM's actual earnings.

2) The repayment is from other TARP funds GM received by converting debt into equity or making the Treasury the single largest holder of GM stocks. In short, remember when Bush gave them emergency assistance from TARP I? Well, that is what GM is paying here but using the money from TARP II given by Obama through the bankruptcy and the Treasury's purchase of GM equity for funds.

3) The only way the Government really gets our money back is if we sell those stocks and break even.

4) Most importantly, GM still owes the Government around $50 Billion notwithstanding certain fraudulent accounting practices.

So once again this campaign by GM and its media allies is just another slap on the face of American taxpayers.

 

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Where is the misinformation? This was in the original article:

The company has received a total of $52 billion in U.S. government aid, with the $6.7 billion considered a loan. The rest would be repaid when the company sells stock to the public, perhaps later this year.

No one is saying GM's fully paid back. When the money was given, the common argument was that they'd run through the money and never pay it back. GM's stated goal was to try to pay it back within 5 years.

But, like Citi before it, GM is way ahead of schedule in terms of making taxpayers whole. Its funny how people were originally saying "they'll never pay it back!" are now just saying "they aren't paying it all back now!!" - as though anyone thinks that's what is happening.

 

Look back at my post I never made any of the points you are counter-arguing here. So stop throwing blank quotes my way trying to imply that I made those arguments.

I just clarified the fraudulent accounting GM is using to claim that it has repaid the taxpayers. GM's scheme is misleading people into thinking the taxpayers are being repaid and made whole when in fact GM is using new money to pay old money.

It's equivalent to taking a home equity loan to pay off credit cards to the same bank or lender and then claiming I have paid off all my debt. The debt is still there just in a different form which in GM's case is over $52 Billion in stock.

This is the same fraudulent accounting Goldman Sachs used when it repaid its TARP money using the funds it received through AIG from get this...TARP FUNDS. End result Goldman gets a win-win situation with no chance of actual losses from bets made with a bankrupt bookie named AIG.

Slush-Fund anyone?