Trump Tells Agencies To Find Ways To Cut GM Subsidies

[Swordsmyth]

Following up on his earlier threat, Bloomberg reports that according to "a person familiar with his instructions", President Donald Trump has asked federal agencies to look for ways to cut subsidies to General Motors following the automaker’s plans to close factories and lay off thousands of workers.
On Tuesday, Trump threatened GM that his administration is “looking at cutting all @GM subsidies,” including tax breaks for the purchase of electric cars.
And since a change in the tax break would require action by Congress, Trump has directed a broader examination of ways for the federal government to block funds to GM. Fox Business reported earlier Wednesday that the Energy Department was examining funds provided to GM. Other agencies have received similar instructions, the Bloomberg source said.
Still, in the past 12 months GM has received a relatively modest $333.5 million in federal spending according to a U.S. government website that tracks federal expenditures. More than 93% of that came through federal vehicle purchases for use by government departments.
Where taxpayer generosity features more prominently if indirectly, is that GM is also a frequent recipient of major research and defense contracts. Among the largest are a Department of Defense project that began in 2000 and earned the company $167.9 million as well as two Department of Energy grants of more than $100 million related to electric vehicles and batteries awarded during the Obama administration. Of course, U.S. taxpayers lost more than $10 billion in the rescue of the company during the financial crisis a decade ago.
https://www.zerohedge.com/sites/default/files/inline-images/2018.11.28gm.JPG
Putting these numbers in context, GM is on track to generate an estimated $144.2 billion in revenue this year.

More at: https://www.zerohedge.com/news/2018-11-28/trump-tells-agencies-find-ways-cut-gm-subsidies-buyout-offer-details-emerge

[TheCount]

Do you believe that the President should have this power?

[Swordsmyth]

Do you believe that the President should have this power?
I believe they shouldn't get subsidies, then he wouldn't have this power.

Ending subsidies is a good thing.

[acptulsa]

I believe they should get subsidies, then he wouldn't have this power.

Ending subsidies is a good thing.

You make as much sense as Dubya.

[Swordsmyth]

You make as much sense as Dubya.
Thanks for catching the typo, I will fix it.

[euphemia]

Do you believe that the President should have this power?

We should not be subsidizing private industry to begin with. Obama is the one who took them over, so I guess Trump should have the power to stop the hemorrhage.

[axiomata]

I believe they shouldn't get subsidies, then he wouldn't have this power.

Ending subsidies is a good thing.

I wish the Trump team luck in ending subsidies. He can also throw in his recent farm subsidies implemented to counter the damage of his trade war.

[Swordsmyth]

I wish the Trump team luck in ending subsidies. He can also throw in his recent farm subsidies implemented to counter the damage of his trade war.
He should not have given BigAg more welfare to limit the damage to them from China's trade war.

[r3volution 3.0]

Obviously, Trump's doing this not because he's opposed to subsides (he just implemented new ones for farmers), but because GM "crossed him."

He's getting more and more reminiscent of Hoover/FDR in his attempts at jawboning business into helping his political career.

If Trump has a second term, people might want to review FDR's "second new deal" for a sneak peak.

[acptulsa]

So his tariffs hurt GM, so he's going to fix it with more tariffs, but the jobs won't be saved after all because he's cutting the subsidies out of spite.

If we cut Washington loose from Maryland and Virginia, would it float out to sea?

[Swordsmyth]

Obviously, Trump's doing this not because he's opposed to subsides (he just implemented new ones for farmers), but because GM "crossed him."

He's getting more and more reminiscent of Hoover/FDR in his attempts at jawboning business into helping his political career.

If Trump has a second term, people might want to review FDR's "second new deal" for a sneak peak.
Subsidizing them is a crime, continuing to subsidize them while they sell out to our enemies is worse than a crime, it is a mistake.

[Swordsmyth]

So his tariffs hurt GM, so he's going to fix it with more tariffs, but the jobs won't be saved after all because he's cutting the subsidies out of spite.

If we cut Washington loose from Maryland and Virginia, would it float out to sea?
This isn't about the tariffs and we should cut off their subsidies since they shouldn't have them in the first place and they are selling out to our enemies.

[oyarde]

Do you believe that the President should have this power?

cutting subsidies ?

[acptulsa]

This isn't about the tariffs ...

Wishing it doesn't make it so. When GM made the announcement, they gave reasons, or excuses, or whatever, why they're closing plants. That's a part of the conversation you have no power to exorcise.

[Swordsmyth]

Wishing it doesn't make it so. When GM made the announcement, they gave reasons, or excuses, or whatever, why they're closing plants. That's a part of the conversation you have no power to exorcise.
...

[axiomata]

Subsidizing them is a crime, continuing to subsidize them while they sell out to our enemies is worse than a crime, it is a mistake.
Is a mistake worse than a crime?

[acptulsa]

Wishing it doesn't make it so. When GM made the announcement, they gave reasons, or excuses, or whatever, why they're closing plants. That's a part of the conversation you have no power to exorcise.

...

[Swordsmyth]

Is a mistake worse than a crime?
When it is added on top of a crime it is.

[euphemia]

So his tariffs hurt GM, so he's going to fix it with more tariffs, but the jobs won't be saved after all because he's cutting the subsidies out of spite.

No, GM was in trouble long before this. Obama is the one who tried to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. They never really got out of trouble.

[acptulsa]

No, GM was in trouble long before this.

Of course they were. But selling Buicks as status symbols to the traditionally, notoriously terrible drivers of the Orient in general, and China in particular, has been one bright spot in their outlook.

Until now.

[r3volution 3.0]

No, GM was in trouble long before this. Obama is the one who tried to make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. They never really got out of trouble.

Conservative? Donald Trump Supported Auto Bailouts In 2008 (https://dailycaller.com/2011/04/20/conservative-donald-trump-supported-auto-bailouts-in-2008/)


“I think the government should stand behind them 100 percent,” Trump told Fox News’ Neil Cavuto nearly three years ago. “You cannot lose the auto companies. They’re great. They make wonderful products.”

Faced with crushing debts caused by poor management and high labor costs, GM and Chrysler requested federal assistance to keep the firms afloat, and were granted a $25 billion loan in the fall of 2008. President George Bush then secured more than $17 billion for the
companies.

This occurred months before the birth of the Tea Party, but conservatives were outraged.

Not Trump. A longtime advocate of sweetheart deals between corporation and state, the real-estate developer went all in for the deal.
“[Y]ou have to try and save the companies,” Trump said in a separate 2008 Fox News interview. “And I think you can easily save the companies.”

[euphemia]

Just saying you can’t lay all of this at Trump’s door. The Saturn plant in Spring Hill, TN was supposed to be a shining jewel in the GM crown. It went dark very shortly after. It has been operating with a skeleton crew more recently, but is mostly a big waste of prime real estate.

[PAF]

Conservative? Donald Trump Supported Auto Bailouts In 2008 (https://dailycaller.com/2011/04/20/conservative-donald-trump-supported-auto-bailouts-in-2008/)

I must update my On the Record sheets:

http://www.ronpaulforums.com/showthread.php?477303-Donald-Trump-On-The-Record

[r3volution 3.0]

Just saying you can’t lay all of this at Trump’s door. The Saturn plant in Spring Hill, TN was supposed to be a shining jewel in the GM crown. It went dark very shortly after. It has been operating with a skeleton crew more recently, but is mostly a big waste of prime real estate.

The guy who supported bailing out the inefficient company gets blame for the company's continuing inefficiency.

[euphemia]

The guy who supported bailing out the inefficient company gets blame for the company's continuing inefficiency.

As opposed to the guy who actually did it?

[r3volution 3.0]

As opposed to the guy who actually did it?

No opposition at all: peas in a pod.

[brushfire]

Just saying you can’t lay all of this at Trump’s door. The Saturn plant in Spring Hill, TN was supposed to be a shining jewel in the GM crown. It went dark very shortly after. It has been operating with a skeleton crew more recently, but is mostly a big waste of prime real estate.

GM has been a hasbeen for a long time. Its a sh!tty company, run by sh!tty executives, propped up by subsidies from sh!tty politicians.

More signs of a healthy economy btw... psst - the recession has arrived.

[euphemia]

You can’t get past what you said. In 2009 Donald Trump was a New York mogul and reality TV star. Barack Obama was President of the United States who swore an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America. You tell me that Obama didn’t go on TV and say the government took over General Motors. He actually did it. And took taxpayers for a ride. While giving GM all kinds of exceptions to the rules every other auto maker had to follow. And Chrysler is no longer an American car.

You are about as inconsistent as anyone on these boards. Hold government accountable for what it does. Obama was President in 2009.

[acptulsa]

You can’t get past what you said. In 2009 Donald Trump was a New York mogul and reality TV star. Barack Obama was President of the United States who swore an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States of America. You tell me that Obama didn’t go on TV and say the government took over General Motors. He actually did it. And took taxpayers for a ride. While giving GM all kinds of exceptions to the rules every other auto maker had to follow. And Chrysler is no longer an American car.

You are about as inconsistent as anyone on these boards. Hold government accountable for what it does. Obama was President in 2009.

WTF are you on about? No one is laying the Corvair on Trump, or the Vega, or the Citation, or the Oldsmobile Diesel.

Trump was not in power during the bailout, no. He was also not in opposition to them. He was another pea in Obama's pod. Dubya started it, Obama continued it, Trump was content with it until he got pissy.

And Chrysler had merged with Daimler Benz long before Obama took office. Did they magically become American again after the dissolution of that merger?

It's the truth. Get over it.