What happened to the oversight?

United States
April 22, 2009 9:03pm CST
GM is closing it's plants for nine weeks due to slow sales and that fact that it is possibly facing bankruptcy. THey are laying off thousands of workers. GM received 13.4 billion in bail out dollars. If they go into bankruptcy they will not be obligated to pay it back. THe tax payers just loose it. I thought congress was going to be tough on the automakers. THey told them BEFORE they would give htem the money they wanted the companies to show they would be viable so that they would not just loose hte money. But that is exactly what is happening. We just wasted 13.4 billion. Plus tax dollars for the uneployment benefits to the layed off workers. So just where was the oversight? Heck they just got that bail out money a few months ago and already they are going under. Did congress and the white house even read GM's viability report? This is really ticking me off. Some really bad decisions are being made in Washington DC and we are footing the bill for it. What do you think about this turn of events? What do you think about the 13.4 BILLION we will more than likely never see again? Who is to blame for giving them the money?
1 person likes this
4 responses
anniepa
@anniepa (27955)
• United States
23 Apr 09
Thegreatdebater is absolutely right, we HAD to give them the money. No matter what happens in the futre, we HAD to try and I don't think it's a matter of who to blame. If we lose our entire U.S. auto industry we'll be losing a heck of a lot more than $13.4 billion, the ripple effect will be devastating. It won't be just the plants or the suppliers or the parts stores or the dealerships...it will be every other type of business that exists all over the country. There's no easy fix for the mess our economy is in but doing nothing isn't an option at this point. The best we can hope for now is for the auto companies to somehow scrape by with or without taxpayers' help until things start to improve at least a little and people who are lucky enough to have jobs can get the credit to buy cars and then we have to hope something is done about health care ASAP because that's one of the biggest expenses for the auto companies in this country and it's their major disadvantage over those in other nations. Annie
lilwonders
@lilwonders456 (8214)
• United States
23 Apr 09
annie....I know the implications if GM goes down. But what i am saying is that they government promised they would be viable if they gave them the only and that is not the case. Are they going to bail them out again? Or let them go bankrupt. If they go bankrupt we loose all those bail out loans. IF we bail them out again then will it then make them viable. The government can pour as much money as they want into GM....but if people are not buying their cars than it is just money down the drain. Few people due to the economy are buying cars. And the ones that are, well they seem to not want GM cars. So do we bail them out forever when they have a product so few seem to want?
1 person likes this
maxbest
@maxbest (97)
• China
23 Apr 09
The measure to give GM the money is not wrong,I think.No one got the idea that the so much bail still didn't work in this regard.GM is so big a company,if it is going to bankrupt,it's really a heavy impact on American society.It means thounsands of jobs would be lost,a lot of family would have no economical source.So I think it deserved the attempt,thought it failed
AngryKittyMSV
@AngryKittyMSV (4317)
• United States
23 Apr 09
They NEVER should have gotten the money in the first place. NONE of the bailed out companies should have gotten a single dime of taxpayer money, it only served to prolong the inevitable. If these huge companies failed, other people with GOOD ideas would have gotten a chance to enter the marketplace as smaller companies. If you remember back to your childhood, Ford, Chevy, and Chrysler WERE NOT the only American car companies, there used to be MANY more! Competition is a GOOD thing, it forces you to stay on top of your game to stay IN the game.
fionatan2009
@fionatan2009 (45)
• China
23 Apr 09
oh,the management of GM give me a deep impress when i studied in college.many times our teachers put it as a good example of management courses.maybe the financial crisis is one reason of it to go to bankrupt.the government is doing what they should.no people know what will happen then.