UAW Gets $12 Million from GM as Taxpayers Get Scrooged

By Mark Modica/National Legal and Policy Center

Bloomberg reported last week that General Motors will be paying $12 million in additional bonuses to its UAW workers for meeting “quality targets.” It’s nice to see the holiday spirit of giving at GM. Unfortunately; US taxpayers are not faring as well as Government Motors’ politically favored union members.

The Obama Administration still refuses to exit its stake in GM with Treasury serving as Money Manager for the American taxpayers. Geithner and friends continue to gamble on a market-timing strategy to “maximize” taxpayers return on its GM bailout (sorry, “investment.”) So, how are they doing?

Back in July, I criticized Treasury’s decision to continue holding the 500 million or so shares of GM that taxpayers own. Treasury could have filed to sell shares at the first available date in May at about $31 a share. The July share price was around $28 a share. The financial wizards at the Obama Administration and guardians of taxpayer funds have seen their gamble on GM lose another $3.5 billion of value since the July article and over $5 billion since they could have first filed to sell as shares now trade under $21 a share. Perhaps Treasury and the Obama Administration should give up on their unsuccessful experiment of playing market-timer with funds that America can not afford to lose.

http://nlpc.org/stories/2011/12/14/gm-gives-uaw-12-million-taxpayers-get-scrooged

Tagged as: GM, Obama administration, taxpayers, UAW