I’ve been against the auto bailout from the very beginning because it was a corrupt payoff to lazy corporate fat-cats and an ossified union.
And when folks on the left say the bailout is a success, I explain that any industry can be propped up with a sufficiently large injection of other people’s money.
Now we have new data on how much “other people’s money” has been diverted. It’s a big number, and it seems to get bigger each time there’s a new estimate. Here’s part of a Reuters report.
The U.S. Treasury Department has said the auto industry bailout will cost taxpayers $3.4 billion more than previously thought. Treasury now estimates the 2009 bailout will eventually cost the government $25.1 billion, according to a report sent to Congress on Friday. That is up from the last quarterly estimate of $21.7 billion.
Sort of reminds me of the old joke about the lousy businessman who says he loses money on every sale, but he makes up for it with high volume.
Well, that incompetent businessman has a kindred spirit in the White House. Here’s some of what Politico reported.
President Obama, while villifying Mitt Romney for opposing the auto industry bailout, bragged about the success of his decision to provide government assistance… he said. “Now I want to do the same thing with manufacturing jobs, not just in the auto industry, but in every industry…”
Well, we can’t say we haven’t been warned. He wants to do the same thing in “every industry.” Well, according to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, there are 60 industries in America. At $25 billion each, that means $1.5 trillion.
Stimulus in action
By the way, Mickey Kaus explains that the government’s numbers are incomplete and that the actual damage is significantly higher. And this Reason TV video exposes some of the government’s chicanery.
P.S. If you’re in the mood for some satire, here’s a bailout form showing how you can become a deadbeat and mooch off the government.
P.P.S. Just in case you’re new to this blog and don’t know my history, rest assured that I’m also against Wall Street bailouts.
P.P.P.S. Ethical people should boycott GM and Chrysler, particularly since these companies are now handmaidens of big government.
International Liberty 
[…] I commented the other day on the cost of the bailout jumping to $25 billion. It’s actually a lot higher when you count other bailout expenses, as John Ransom […]
[…] we’re not talking small amounts. The direct cost to taxpayers presently is about $25 billion, though I noted as a postscript in this otherwise humorous post that experts like John Ransom have […]
[…] Gee, it’s almost as if everything that critics have said all along is right. […]
[…] we’re not talking small amounts. The direct cost to taxpayers presently is about $25 billion, though I noted as a postscript in this otherwise humorous post that experts like John Ransom have […]
Romney wouldn’t have saved anything. Ever.
-Evergreen Junk Cars
Instead of letting the weaker car company go out of business so the others can benefit, President Obama comes in and messes everything up.
[…] Auto Bailout Cost Climbs to $25 Billion, yet Obama Thinks It Is a Success and Threatens to Do the Sa… […]
[…] been saying for years that any company can be kept afloat indefinitely with taxpayers subsidies. So if that’s the definition of success, we can party until we hit the fiscal brick wall. But that wall won’t feel good, as we can […]
[…] Gee, it’s almost as if everything that critics have said all along is right. […]
[…] we’re not talking small amounts. The direct cost to taxpayers presently is about $25 billion, though I noted as a postscript in this otherwise humorous post that experts like John Ransom have […]
[…] Gee, it’s almost as if everything that critics have said all along is right. […]
[…] I commented the other day on the cost of the bailout jumping to $25 billion. It’s actually a lot higher when you count other bailout expenses, as John Ransom explains. […]
[…] of the Auto Industry as a great success dispite its ever grown price tag which currently is at $25 billion dollars. Like many programs like this it does nothing but help out fat cat leaders of unions and the fools […]
HopNChangers will dig in their heals rather than admit that the first black Jimmy Carter president of the united states was the one who cemented America’s path to decline. An otherwise happy event – a significant step towards elimination of racial prejudices – will be dwarfed by the bigger picture : the adoption of the policies of decline.
I miss the bad example set by the Soviet Union. The western world seems to have lost its prosperity compass. Victorious, arrogant and complacent after its cold war victory it reneged on the principles of individual freedom that built up its past success and adopted the collectivist ideas that once kept the now emerging world in misery. Complacent in its victory it thought it could afford to squander some of its advantage in a modest turn towards the perceived comforts of collectivism. …But it is what it is. The movie will play according to script just as it has in virtually every country in europe, a declining continent growing at one to two percent being drowned by a much larger world growing at five percent. Act accordingly.
… claims to other people’s productivity…
The competitiveness of the American auto industry continues to erode. The 25 billion have only bought some time against the eventual contraction. Now once the american auto industry starts operating under the flatter afford-reward curves promoted by HopNChange, ie more taxes for the more productive and more insulation from mediocrity for the less productive, through ObamaCare and other institutionalized redistribution mechanisms, the erosion of competitiveness will accelerate even further — necessitating a new direct or indirect infusion of other people’s money sometime sooner rather than later.
Folks, the competitiveness of American industry has declined to parity with the rest of the world. How is a majority of Americans planning to address the problem? : By flattening the effort-reward curves on both the high and low end of the American productivity spectrum. That is the demarcation of the point of no return. All indications are that this point has passed. Momentum will carry America through the next few short years as HopNChange cements the path to decline. You, as Americans, have chosen to tether your prosperity trajectory to the same delusional ideas as Europe. Unfortunately you have moved far enough down this path that by the time Europe’s decline becomes irrefutably obvious, it will be way beyond too late to reverse course for America.
I understand Mr. Mitchell’s native attachment to America. But on practical terms, teach your children to be international citizens. The chance that America will still offer the best environment for prosperity 15-20 years down the line look very slim indeed. Place all your bets on America at your own peril.
Unlike ignorant Americans, the world has seen this movie played many times over. The disappointment of slower economic growth and decline will be addressed by the electorate by redoubling on “Other people’s money” offered by more HopNChange. The vicious cycle of ever declining competitiveness and ever more desperate reach for coaims to other people’s productivity, has now closed. Ignore this reality at your own peril.