Get this from the LAT:
The federal government on Monday sold its remaining shares of General Motors Co. stock, ending the controversial $49.5-billion bailout of the automaker with an approximately $10.5-billion loss for taxpayers.
It gets worse, folks:
1) GM is on pace to sell less vehicles in 2013 compared to 2008; the year which led to the bailout. In 2012, GM also sold less vehicles than 2008.
2) GM had revenue of $150 billion in 2012. It was $149 billion in 2008.
This is no typo my friends: GM sold less units in the-bailout-worked 2012 vs. my-God-save-us-from-Bush 2008, and total revenue in dollar terms differs by only one billion!
These number make you wonder why the GOP didn’t make this a winning issue during the 2012 campaign.
Take note that the Administration lost 20% of its bailout investment in a 4-year period that the stock market more than doubled.
UPDATE: I forgot to write a key point. During it’s special-treatment bankruptcy (done after the bailout didn’t ease GM’s obligations), the Government permitted GM to take a $45 billion loss from the old company and put it onto the book of the new company. As Curt Levey put it, the new company is not paying tax on its first $45 billion profit because it is essentially filling up the $45 billion loss from the old company.
This treatment is unheard of and the loss of billions in tax revenue to the Government because of this gimmick is NOT included in the $10.5 billion bailout loss number headlined in this article.