If we had anything but a spend-and-spend president, then he’d use the set of raisins he was born with and scratch off the $25B with his line-item veto powers.

The president does not have the ability to line-item veto things. There was an attempt to give it to him, but it was found to be unconstitutional by the Supreme Court. He has the choice to sign the whole thing or veto the whole thing, that’s it.

http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2008/roll632.xml

Does anyone know the bill number? I’d like to find out how he voted and contact my rep. Also, I’d like to give my Senator a head’s up that this is b-a-d.

The problem is is that it seems to be attached to a unrelated must-pass omnibus spending bill. That is, Congressmen who vote for this, for the most part, aren’t actually voting for this specifically-they are voting to keep the lights on and prevent a government shutdown.

edit: i believe in a capitalist economy, but when you subsidize or bail out your losers with your winners that’s not capitalism. Survival of the fittest works if you let it. When you funnel money from the winning industries through the government who will take a cut it’s a bigger loss. When you help out the losers they have less motivation to become winners. What irks me most is that the CEO’s and government know all this, and are playing a different game.

Chump Change!!!!!!!!

Would this bailout have happened without the Volt? IMO, the Volt will never see the road, but it provided cover for this giveaway. Without it, the ‘retool’ ploy would have begged the question “like what?”. Given that GM’s only hybrid plays are a failed joke, I don’t see how they could have used that target.

So it seems to me that Rick and Bob have pulled off one hell of a con, and in my book at least, deserve mega bonuses for as many years as the first $25B and follow-ons last.

Scary thought.

The 25 billion is now gone – the “string attached” are obviously fake. The 700 billion will be exchanged into securities that may depreciate or appreciate in value. Detroit is getting a LOT!