Just in case you were impressed by those new GM commercials with their new CEO telling taxpayers/potential customers that they've repaid their government loan "ahead of schedule, in full and with interest", don't be...
Why is that you ask? Because they "paid it back" with other money they received from the government.
Really? Yes, really. (Via the Washington Examiner [5])
Herbert M. Allison, Jr., Assistant Secretary of the Treasury for Financial Stability, told three House Republicans in a recent letter that "Treasury has never represented that the loan payment represented a full return of all government assistance."
Allison's statement came in an April 30 letter to House Budget Committee ranking minority member Rep. Paul Ryan, R-Wisc., and two fellow GOP members of the panel, Rep. Jeb Hensarling, R-Tex., and Rep, Scott Garrett, R-N.J.
The letter was in reference to GM's announcement last week in a nationally televised television ad and elsewhere that it had repaid its bailout loans in full, ahead of schedule and with interest.
Only in a big spending, bailout, "stimulus" world can you borrow money to pay back the other money you borrowed (rob Peter to pay Peter?) and run ads to tout that fact on television. But then again, that might have something to do with the fact that it's now "Government Motors".
Amazing.
