Holding the GOP accountable, part 2: automotive industry edition

Think Progress notes: This morning, a rejuvenated General Motors made its initial public offering of stock, hoping to raise $23.1 billion. As a result of the offering, which is the largest in the nation’s history, the federal government’s ownership in the auto company was halved “and billions of dollars in bailout money was returned to the federal government.”

With that in mind, let's go back to Think Progress who has collected quotes from leading members of the GOP from the spring and summer of 2009 about the actions to save GM:

Rep. John Boehner (R-OH): “Does anyone really believe that politicians and bureaucrats in Washington can successfully steer a multi-national corporation to economic viability?”

Sen. Richard Shelby (R-AL): “It’s basically going to be a government-owned, government-run company. …It’s the road toward socialism.”

RNC Chairman Michael Steele: “No matter how much the President spins GM’s bankruptcy as good for the economy, it is nothing more than another government grab of a private company and another handout to the union cronies who helped bankroll his presidential campaign.”

Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC): “Now the government has forced taxpayers to buy these failing companies without any plausible plan for profitability. Does anyone think the same government that plans to double the national debt in five years will turn GM around in the same time?”

Rep. Tom Price (R-GA): “Unfortunately, this is just another sad chapter in President Obama’s eager campaign to interject his administration in the private sector’s business dealings.”

Rep. Lamar Smith (R-TX): The auto company rescues “have been the leading edge of the Obama administration’s war on capitalism.”

Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ): When government gets involved in a company, “the disaster that follows is predictable.”

Even today, despite evidence to the contrary, wingnut secessionist Texas governor Rick Perry doubled down on the stupid and claimed the bailout of GM was a failure. Even today, despite evidence to the contrary, wingnut secessionist Texas governor Rick Perry doubled down on the stupid and claimed the bailout of GM was a failure. There's your incredibly prescient Republican leadership. Congratulations America.

GOP walks TARP tightrope: they voted for it, it worked, but they have to campaign against it

Republican Senators like John Cornyn (R-TX), John McCain (R-AZ), Bob Bennett (R-UT), and Judd Gregg (R-NH) are stuck in a nasty position. The TARP bailout, which they voted for, worked. It saved us from a deepening depression and helped to turn the economy around.

The problem?

One, it's bolstering the approval ratings of the interloper from Kenya. Two, the wingnuts hate it.

So the GOP has to run against something they voted for that worked because their constituents are crazy.

Ouch.

Interesting quote:

Sen. Judd Gregg (R-NH), who's retiring at the end of the year and is therefore unencumbered by the need to defend himself from the GOP base, has nothing to run away from.

"It was extremely effective. Not only was it effective and stabilized the financial industry, it also returned to the taxpayers almost $20 billion in interest and dividends that they would have otherwise not have."

Communist Obama to make U.S. an $8 billion profit on Citi bailout

Communism fail

Washington Post via Cesca

The Obama administration is making final preparations to sell its stake in the New York bank, according to industry and federal sources. At today's prices, the sale would net more than $8 billion, by far the largest profit returned from any firm that accepted bailout funds, and the transaction would be the second-largest stock sale in history.

Jon Stewart explains regulatory reform

Why does it take Jon Stewart to clear this stuff up? Isn't a comedian doing the job that our own government and media ought to be doing?

It's taken you idiots two years during the worst financial collapse since the Great Depression to compile a list of regulations we should have put into place the next day? Well, better late than never, I guess.

Lehman meltdown, accounting gimmick "like a drug"

Dylan Ratigan's easy to follow primer into what went wrong, with former Governor Elliott Spitzer:



Also read an excellent compilation of sources from Huff Post

Break too-big-to-fail, move your money to community banks

Arianna Huffington and Rob Johnson have penned a piece recommending that we being moving our money out of the too-big-to-fail banks and into community banks.

The big banks on Wall Street, propped up by taxpayer money and government guarantees, have had a record year, making record profits while returning to the highly leveraged activities that brought our economy to the brink of disaster. In a slap in the face to taxpayers, they have also cut back on the money they are lending, even though the need to get credit flowing again was one of the main points used in selling the public the bank bailout. But since April, the Big Four banks -- JP Morgan/Chase, Citibank, Bank of America, and Wells Fargo -- all of which took billions in taxpayer money, have cut lending to businesses by $100 billion.

Meanwhile, America's Main Street community banks -- the vast majority of which avoided the banquet of greed and corruption that created the toxic economic swamp we are still fighting to get ourselves out of -- are struggling. Many of them have closed down (or been taken over by the FDIC) over the last 12 months. The government policy of protecting the Too Big and Politically Connected to Fail is badly hurting the small banks, which are having a much harder time competing in the financial marketplace. As a result, a system which was already dangerously concentrated at the top has only become more so.

We talked about the outrage of big, bailed-out banks turning around and spending millions of dollars on lobbying to gut or kill financial reform -- including "too big to fail" legislation and regulation of the derivatives that played such a huge part in the meltdown. And as we contrasted that with the efforts of local banks to show that you can both be profitable and have a positive impact on the community, an idea took hold: why don't we take our money out of these big banks and put them into community banks? And what, we asked ourselves, would happen if lots of people around America decided to do the same thing? Our money has been used to make the system worse -- what if we used it to make the system better?

More...

Watch the video, then click here to find the most sound community banks in your area:

The "Daily Show"'s Guide To Fixing The Auto Industry

The Daily Show's John Hodgman knows exactly what to do to save the American auto industry and kindly laid out his five-step plan last night for the world to see. The highlights include rekindling the American love affair with the car by capturing the tender beauty of autoerotic asphyxiation. (We're pretty sure that doesn't mean what he thinks it means.)

The Daily Show With Jon Stewart	M - Th 11p / 10c
You're Welcome - Auto Industry
comedycentral.com

Barney Frank bitchslaps Code Pink activists

(HuffPost)
Activists from Code Pink were dealt two severe smackdowns Tuesday from Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, amidst testimony from Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke.

"Will you act your age and stop playing with that sign?" Frank asked the activists, on hand to wave signs requesting bailouts. "We really need people to grow up."

Moments later, Frank interrupted Bernanke to issue a second admonishment, threatening to expel the next activist to wave a sign.

"I understand that there are some people for whom rational discussion is not an appropriate means of expressing themselves. You are entitled to do that in general, but not in a way that interrupts those of us who are trying to have rational discussions," he said. "The next one who holds a sign will be ejected."

He then offered some advice on political tactics to the group. "I do not know how you think you could advance any cause to which you might be attached by this kind of silliness," he said.

The new face of crime: white people are scary

Teabagger Santelli supports AIG bonuses

So Rick Santelli, he of the 'rewarding-the-housing-market-losers' fame, urged the masses to show some perspective. After all, this was mere "millions" of dollars engendering the bonus-driven anger, as opposed to the "billions" that AIG has received in bailout bucks. From CNBC's Squawk Box:

SANTELLI: Now, think about it this way. Maybe I'm missing something. But the outrage seems to be about M's, millions of dollars, right? $165 million, OK?

But I would think that it should be looked at as a pretty big positive, because when you go from the M, maybe you should try to go to the B's, which is the billions of dollars, and maybe that's going to even enlighten it for the T, trillions of dollars. You know, $165 million is like worrying about 16.5 cents, while $165 maybe necessitates a little more outrage. What do you guys think?

BECKY QUICK: Hey, Rick, I think the real idea here is just the idea of rewarding bad behavior, which is something you've spoken out against in the past.

SANTELLI: No, I guess what I'm saying is it's an order of magnitude. Don't you think this dynamic that the average guy reading his newspaper is really starting to be in tune with this?

And I think bonuses really strike a cord as to the dynamic you're talking about. But there's many degrees of intensity if one really wants to shine the light on the money that's being scrutinized. You know, there's Ms, Bs and Ts. I just want to know what people think.

All of this goes to the bullshit notions behind this "Teabag Revolution".  This isn't about responsibility.  It's not about protecting taxpayers.  

It's about fomenting a nonsense idea that the average Joe is being screwed, while you're actually the one screwing him.

It's about protecting the status quo using the same dimwit sections of the populace that have always knee-jerked when the wealthy pull their chain.

Santelli is a huckster who sees the end of the road for this shell game, and he's desperately clinging on.

Finally a reasoned approach from the Republicans on AIG

(MSNBC)
Iowa Sen. Charles Grassley suggested on Monday that AIG executives should take a Japanese approach toward accepting responsibility for the collapse of the insurance giant by resigning or killing themselves.

"I suggest, you know, obviously, maybe they ought to be removed," Grassley said. "But I would suggest the first thing that would make me feel a little bit better toward them if they'd follow the Japanese example and come before the American people and take that deep bow and say, I'm sorry, and then either do one of two things: resign or go commit suicide."

Actually, on a gut level, it's hard to disagree.