Saturday, January 28, 2012

GM: From the White House to the statehouse

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General Motors is now notorious for reaching deep into the pockets of taxpayers to bail itself out of a bad situation. In 2008, under the Troubled Asset Relief Program, or TARP, President Bush doled out the first round of what eventually became a $50 billion bailout of the Detroit automaker. With that, the United States government became a majority owner in the company.

This did not sit well with most taxpayers, who cried foul and rightfully so. Soon thereafter, GM became known by the more appropriate moniker of “Government Motors.” Fearing a consumer backlash against it for this historic bailout, GM attempted to distance itself from the Washington scene. But taxpayers weren’t fully off the hook.

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