Obama Administration Caught In Yet Another LIE

This from the Daily Caller:

The Treasury Department, under fire for supporting General Motors’ claim that the company was paying off its government bailout with that same bailout money, is trying to set the record straight.

Treasury “never” suggested GM had repaid the bailout in full, according to an April 30 department letter to House oversight committee ranking member Darrell Issa, California Republican.

The only problem is Treasury’s evidence, which the agency helpfully attached. It’s a press release that reads: “GM REPAYS TREASURY LOAN IN FULL.”

For those who haven’t been following the situation, her

e’s what happened. The federal government sank $49.5 billion into GM. It now owns 60.8% of the company’s common shares and $2.1 billion in preferred shares. It was owed a $6.7 billion loan and was holding $13.4 billion in a “just in case” escrow account.

GM took taxpayer dollars from the escrow account and paid back its taxpayer loan of $6.7 billion. And voilà! Uncle Sam was off the automaker’s back, at least, that’s what they’d have you believe.

Darrell Issa, the Treasury Department’s inspector general, and others have been holding both GM’s and Treasury’s feet to the fire, claiming the two were deceptively passing off the loan repayment – in truth only a shifting of funds – as the end of the government’s involvement in GM.

Here’s what GM said in a national TV advertisement:

“I’m Ed Whitacre from General Motors. A lot of Americans didn’t agree with giving GM a second chance. Quite frankly, I can respect that. We want to make this a company all Americans can be proud of again. That’s why I’m here to announce we have repaid our government loan – in full, with interest, five years of the original schedule.”

Treasury said in its April 21 press release GM “has fully repaid its debt under the Troubled Asset Relief Program.”

Now, Treasury says it “never suggested that the loan repayment represented a full return of all government assistance.”

The April 21 Treasury press release notes that the government retains an ownership stake in the company, acknowledging the government’s continued involvement with the firm. But Issa slammed the agency for being deceptive.

“While their might exist some ambiguity within the Department of the Treasury regarding what it means to pay the U.S. taxpayers back in full, the rest of America knows better than to fall for GM’s deceptive ad campaign backed by the Treasury Department aiming to defraud the American people,” Issa said in a written statement.

Comments

[GeorgiaDawg]

Just another scam by the Go bama crack heads to prop him up and try and make a
nobody into something he is not.....Another episode in the daily lives of the Chicago
crime family that is now controlling Washington and the White House with the big
man himself, the Godfather of Crap, GoBama, Gobama...

[Herb Tarlek]

If Obama ran his personal life like he runs the country, he'd have to get his car at a "buy here, pay here" lot, prepay his phone minutes, and use check cashing services because no bank would open an account for him. We need a businessman running the country to undo his destruction.

[JB]

You are right about the Chicago Crime family analogy GeorgiaDawg. The problem is that these people have been raised in this environment for so long that some of them don't see a problem with it. Theft and deception are accepted governing practices for these people. Rod Blagojevich's crime was that he got caught. This goes back past the first mayor Daley's "vote early,vote often" campaign for Kennedy in 1960. Democrat Aldermen used to buy votes with beer in most large cities, but it was especially prevalent in Chicago and New York. They haven't had a Republican mayor since 1931, with the current currupt Daley there for the past 21 years.