US Government Goes Car Shopping – with $25 Billion Bailout
Few would believe this would actually happen after the billion dollar financial institution bailouts of recent history, but Congress gave it the Ok. GM, Ford and Chrysler are on their way to a government bailout in the amount of $25 Billion Dollars. That’s a lot of Jeep Liberty’s.
But the bailout is actually supposed to go to the ever increasing pension and health insurance coverage costs for automotive workers and retires. The package includes “$25 billion in loans for the beleaguered Detroit automakers and several of their suppliers.” Detroit doesn’t want it to be called a bailout, but what else can you name free money from the government estimating around $5 billion dollars for each of the three companies up front, in addition to smaller amounts for their suppliers.
This $25 billion looks to be only the beginning, as automotive giants plan on applying for more aide in the same or even greater amounts. Whatever the future holds, present day Detroit needs help, ASAP. General Motors post losses so negative that they fear brands like Chevrolet may not be in existence over the next 1 – 2 years.
Nov 10th, 2008 at 8:19 pm
[...] industry in his first speech to the American people. Of course we learned this weekend that a bail out of GM, Ford & Chrysler by the US Government is easier done than we thought. Sorry about the badly matched audio/video – blame youtube. Share [...]