Soledad O'Brien Lauds 'Successful' Auto Bailout That Cost Taxpayers $14 Billion
According to CNN's Soledad O'Brien, the auto bailout led to a "pretty incredible resurgence" in the American auto industry. She grilled Congressman Mike Rogers (R-Mich.) on Thursday morning over candidate Mitt Romney's previous opposition to the bailout, saying that his opposition and the auto industry's eventual success could become a "huge, huge problem" for the candidate.
"[H]e was against the bailout, and the bailout looking back now, has been successful. Isn't that just standing on the wrong side at the end of the day?" O'Brien pressed Rogers, a special advisor to Romney's campaign. But O'Brien failed to report some of the specific consequences of the bailout, such as the cost to taxpayers. [Video below.]
The bailout's eventual cost to taxpayers was $14 billion. In addition, Rogers argued that taxpayers were quite skeptical of the Obama administration's restructuring of the companies.
"[Y]ou'll be surprised, Soledad, how many people even in Michigan were concerned at heavy hand of the government when they took over these automobile companies," Rogers expressed.
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Comments
Nothing
Submitted by John21 on Thu, 02/16/2012 - 4:02pm.
Nothing gets in the way of the liberal agenda.
Facts, evidence, truth and common sense means nothing to the die hard liberal and is proven everytime Ms. O'Brein speaks.
Look, we cannot think of
Submitted by cristo on Thu, 02/16/2012 - 5:05pm.
Look, we cannot think of these people as journalists the way journalists were thought of back in the day. These people are nothing more than TV "talent." They are referred to by their bosses as "talent." It is their one and only job to get people to watch the TV screen, to stick to the channel during the commercials, and to pass the baton to the next guy during the next hour.
Truth has nothing to do with this. Both CNN and MSNBC are not interested in the truth, in fact, they can't handle the truth. Those citizens who felt GM should not get a special bail out by the government didn't want the workers in Detroit murdered and the plant burned to the ground, they simply wanted GM to go through the bankruptcy process as every other failed company had in the past. If it had, GM would have come back to life as a better company and the U.S. taxpayers would not be responsible for billions they will never see. I'd hope someone like O'Brien, who attended Harvard, could understand that and report that as the truth. But no, she wishes to make Obama out the hero, as if he somehow "saved" the auto industry, all the while ignoring the messy FACT of $14 billion or so. You see, she can't handle the truth. But then again, she's just "talent."
Soledad doesn't keep up with current events.
Submitted by KyWriter on Thu, 02/16/2012 - 4:08pm.
If she did, she would know that GM (Government Motors) just announced plans to cut its white-collar staff in spite of record profits. Since the union is now the largest stockholder and has historically attempted to knife salaried employees at every opportunity, they are free to do what they wish. In that respect, the bailout was certainly successful, but the thousands of GM white-collar workers that will lose their jobs may just disagree.
Interesting. Would like to hear from them!
Submitted by MaximusBraveheart on Thu, 02/16/2012 - 4:23pm.
I would like to see what they had to say. And if they would buy a GM car after being fired by Obama & his Union crew! LOL.
AND remember GM still went bankrupt AFTER the bail out!! I predicted that when Michigan auto people I knew were supporting the bailout. Sure enough the math worked out as predicted. So we could have had a legal b/k upfront and rightfully pay the debt holders as per law and SHED the union debt and contracts. Please tell me how GM would not be in a better position than even now with the same Union influence. I don't like the idea of Detroit being under organized crime control from the top down. Who knows though. Now maybe they will care more since they run the show. I would not be surprise if the "made men" at GM don't start pinching the pay of the lower crowd just like they complain of GM's former mgt.
-- Maximusbraveheart -- Is TRUTH knowable? Moral Relativism is the abandonment of Truth. Truth is knowable. Truth conforms to Reality. Reality is observable by evidence & witness in this day & from history. Relativism is Sesame Street play land.
The bail out saved the UAW
Submitted by Galvanic on Thu, 02/16/2012 - 4:13pm.
A great chunk of the UAW's pension plan was invested in GM stock. If GM went under, the whole pension scheme would collapse.
The bail out rewarded failure. All anyone needs to counter the regurgitated talking points like O'Brien's is to remind them that Ford Motor Company needed no bail out then, and needs no bail out now.
Miss the memo?
Submitted by Model850 on Thu, 02/16/2012 - 5:35pm.
Haven't you heard? The reason Ford survived without a bailout is because it was bailed out. The company benefited from the propping up of the industry by the bailouts.
You see, without the bailouts all those suppliers and parts manufacturers that all the car companies rely on would have tanked, and then Ford would have tanked right along with GM and Chrysler.
So Ford did get a bailout; it was just indirect.
Welcome to the "truth" as told by Obama boot lickers (otherwise known as the traditional media).
Old GM Stock
Submitted by Kingfish17 on Thu, 02/16/2012 - 5:36pm.
The old GM stock went to zero and got wiped out. What should have happened, legally, was that the bondholders would have become the new equity holders of the new GM that emerged from bankruptcy. Instead, Obama waved his kingly scepter and gave a good chunk of the new GM to the unions, and the bondholders got screwed. The main reason that GM didn't go through traditional bankruptcy was that the union contracts would have been terminated, and the union would have had to start from scratch, and maybe not have survived at all.
"You can’t go take a trip to Las Vegas...on the taxpayer’s dime." Barack Obama
depends how you define "success"
Submitted by c5then on Thu, 02/16/2012 - 4:18pm.
If it was to save the UAW and give them control of the company, then it was successful.
Odd how the bailout cost the US taxpayers $14 billion and GM just posted record profits of $7 billion...
Madison and Jefferson and Franklin built a Republic - Roberts killed it!
depends on how you define "Success."
Submitted by Herbster on Thu, 02/16/2012 - 4:44pm.
I'm sure these "Record profits" will be used to pay back the bondholders, etc.......NOT. The money will be given to the UAW drones as a "Bonus." So, what I am being told is, that MY money is being gifted to these union tools.
Economics in the age of obambi and the complicit, totally useless "Republicans."
Yes sir! TERM LIMITS!
Is there one Republican in Congress, ...
Submitted by Newsbubba on Thu, 02/16/2012 - 4:23pm.
... who can muster up the courage to say, "Soledad, you're as full of Shiite as a Christmas turkey," and then explain to her exactly why?
In a respectful manner, of course.
Yes, thank God for that!
Submitted by NJRightWinger12 on Thu, 02/16/2012 - 4:29pm.
I had $14 Billion just lying around, anyways, so,,,
gm bailout
Submitted by samnich on Thu, 02/16/2012 - 6:20pm.
Senator Corker had the right idea. Have them file for chapter 11, wipe out the union contracts and start over. If that had happened, the car company could hold it's head up high, and many of us would continue to buy gm cars. Not now!.
I own two GM
Submitted by Kingfish17 on Thu, 02/16/2012 - 6:36pm.
I own two GM vehicles and love both of them. One is from 1987 and has less then 50,000 miles! But I will never shop for another GM, Chrysler, or even Ford, until the UAW stops supporting the Chicago style politics of the Dems.
"You can’t go take a trip to Las Vegas...on the taxpayer’s dime." Barack Obama
gm bailout
Submitted by samnich on Thu, 02/16/2012 - 6:25pm.
Just saw WSJ reports GM doesn't have to pay federal income tax on earnings for up to 45billion. This is why they have the record profits! What bs is spewed by the msm
14 Billion
Submitted by Spock on Thu, 02/16/2012 - 7:50pm.
If an average new car costs $25,000 you could have purchased 560,000 brand new cars, or 11,200 cars PER STATE; and just given them away.
Just saying
Obama said the surge in Iraq
Submitted by Kevpot on Fri, 02/17/2012 - 12:06am.
Obama said the surge in Iraq would never work.
Isn't that just standing on the wrong side at the end of the day? Did you ever point that out Soledad?