POWIP Piece of Work In Progress – Former Abode of Dan Collins

GM Means Governmental Malfeasance

Another watchdog about to be summarily dismissed:

Previously unreleased documents supplied to The Washington Times reveal that GM specifically used funds it received from the Troubled Asset Relief Program to pay off the government loan. According to Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general for TARP, $4.7 billion of $6.7 billion - 70 percent - of what GM paid back came from TARP money the company received. "The one thing a lot of people overlook with this is where they got the money to pay the loan," Mr. Barofsky told Fox News' Neil Cavuto on Wednesday. "It isn't from earnings." The numbers are based on a quarterly report Mr. Barofsky's office provided to Congress last week.

Jared Bernstein, chief economist and economic policy adviser to Vice President Joseph R. Biden Jr., disputes the special inspector general's findings. "That is not correct, I don't think that is correct," Mr. Bernstein told The Washington Times. "[General Motors] repaid with funds from their own cash accounts, from their own earnings." The cash used by GM to pay back the loan "is the property of General Motors, there is no question about that," he insisted. Some of the money used to pay off the loans may have originated from TARP funds, but "it is really hard to know," he equivocated, because the funds are mixed together and "it is like trying to put an omelet back together again."

The Treasury Department's press office also disagreed with Mr. Barofsky's characterization that GM paid off one credit line with another credit line. The watchdog, however, won't budge. When asked how to tell whether the $4.7 billion used to pay off the government loan came from TARP funds and not some other source, a spokesman for the Special Inspector General's Office explained: "We have a letter from General Motors requesting that they take the money out of escrow and pay the other debt down. And the money in the escrow was clearly TARP funding." That letter has been released by the Special Inspector General's Office.

The only thing with which this administration is parsimonious is the truth.

Related: One-Note Walsh can't tell the difference between enforcement and reform when it comes to immigration. She's an embarrassment, but I guess she's not guilty of discrimination. Maybe she should focus on these outrageous calumnies. She also cites the financial reform bill. NPR couldn't find a single expert who said it would do what ObamaCo say it will. Here's Fausta on the subject, and Michelle Malkin, with some good links.

Also related: Stephen Hawking not down with diversity, immigration "reform". Meh, he's a white guy, anyway:

Xenophobe Jay Tea appears to side with Hawking.

According to the Obama administration, there are certain things that one should not have to provide documentation to prove. Among them:

* That you are in the United States legally
* That you are old enough to obtain birth control or an abortion without parental consent (or even knowledge)
* That you are the voter registered to vote

On the other hand, there are certain things where you absolutely should provide documentation to prove. Among these:

* That you possess health insurance
* That you are old enough to buy alcohol or tobacco
* That you have honestly reported every bit of income (unless, of course, you're part of the Obama administration)

Here's an elegant solution: when pressed for documentation, simply claim to be an illegal alien.

It's a bit of a sad commentary when it's actually more advantageous to be an illegal alien than an American citizen, but those circumstances are becoming more and more common...

Dan Collins

Dan Collins is a dude who blogs. He used to blog elsewhere. Now he blogs here.

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