Thread: Another taxpayer donation to GM and the auto workers union.

JULY 25, 2009, 6:35 A.M. ET The UAW’s Defined Benefactor
Another taxpayer donation to GM and the auto workers union.

Welcome to the General Motors bailout, part three—or is it four, or five? It’s hard to keep up, but this week the federal Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation took over the pension liabilities of Delphi, the auto-parts spinoff of GM that has been working its way through Chapter 11 since 2005. As with the previous taxpayer rescues, this one includes a special favor for the United Auto Workers.

Under the agreement, the PBGC will assume some $6.2 billion in pension liabilities from Delphi, including both hourly and salaried employees. That’s the second biggest pension bailout in PBGC history, and it takes billions of liabilities off the books for GM. As Delphi’s former parent, GM had agreed to take responsibility for billions of dollars of Delphi’s pension obligations to its hourly employees.

It will be months before Delphi employees know what percentage of their expected pension they’ll receive, but not all pensioners are created equal in this arrangement. UAW employees will have their pensions made whole by GM, which insists it is merely fulfilling its end of a deal made with the UAW in 1999 (when it spun off Delphi) to cover any future pension shortfall. Few such obligations usually survive bankruptcy, but, nah, we’re sure politics had nothing to do with it.

Less fortunate are smaller unions and Delphi’s salaried employees, whose pensions may see drastic reductions and who already lost their health care and life insurance plans on April 1.

They would seem to lack the UAW’s clout inside GM and the Obama Administration.

In a letter to the House Financial Services and Senate Banking committees, Michigan Democrats Bart Stupak and Dale Kildee and Republicans John Boehner and James Sensenbrenner, among others, have asked for Congressional hearings on the disparity. [b]Pension benefits, the letter warned, “could be cut by as much as 70%, if not eliminated entirely, for 15,000 retirees.â€

GM - Government Motors or Gangsta Motors?

Written by RSN Political Watch
Friday, 24 July 2009 08:22

Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) speaking on the House floor: Now we've moved into the realm of gangster government.

We have gangster government when the Federal Government has set up a new cartel and private businesses now have to go begging with their hand out to their local, hopefully well politically connected Congressman or their Senator so they can buy a peace offering for that local business. Is that the kind of country we are going to have in the future?



Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) chews up the House for Obama's Gangster Methods, click here to see video.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cjwEBrAW ... re=related


Administration Focused on Keeping Car Dealerships Closed

Posted by: Michele Bachmann at 1:32 PM

Looks like the Obama Administration is also going to great lengths to oppose H.R. 2743, the "Automobile Dealer Economic Rights Restoration Act of 2009."

I've talked extensively about how on July 6th GM dealers received a letter from the General Motors National Dealer Council urging them to sign a sort of petition to Congress immediately; no later than 5:00 p.m. the very next day, saying that they opposed passage of the bill.

I am a co-sponsor of H.R. 2743 along with 241 other Members of Congress. If passed, it would essentially reinstate the economic and contract rights of dealers who were arbitrarily dropped by Chrysler and General Motors during their respective restructurings.

In essence, H.R. 2473 makes these dealers whole instead of allowing their livelihoods to be taken from them with no legal recourse and no financial compensation.

According to TradingMarkets.com, the Obama Administration is urging opposition to this bill, too.

The White House has said that reversing the closings would set a "dangerous precedent, potentially raising legal concerns, to intervene into a closed judicial bankruptcy proceeding on behalf of one particular group at this point."

With all due respect: Tell that to the retired teachers and police officers in Indiana whose pension funds were decimated when the Obama car czar leapfrogged the unsecured debts of the United Auto Workers Union ahead of the secured debts of these legitimate bondholders.

The deal crafted by the Obama White House to quickly move along the restructing of Chrysler and GM trampled on the rights of pension fund creditors by giving a bigger share of the pie to more junior, non-secured parties - like the UAW. Now, that's a very ugly precedent for future investors.

Apparently, the Administration observes legal precedents only if doing so moves forward their priorities and agenda.

------

Elected in 2006, Congresswoman Michele Bachmann is the first Republican woman to be elected to the U.S. House of Representatives from Minnesota. In only her first term, Congresswoman Bachmann developed a reputation as a "principled reformer" who stays true to her conservative beliefs while pushing for real reform of the broken ways of Washington. And, her strong advocacy for her constituents earned her a second term in Congress in November 2008.

She is a leading advocate for bipartisan earmark reform and tax relief and is a staunch opponent of wasteful government spending. She is among the leaders in the U.S. House pushing for increased energy exploration in the U.S. to provide much needed relief at the pump for hard-working Americans and put our nation on the path to energy independence.

Prior to serving in the U.S. Congress, Bachmann served in the Minnesota State Senate. She was elected to the Minnesota State Senate in 2000 where she championed the Taxpayers Bill of Rights. And, prior to that, Bachmann spent five years as a federal tax litigation attorney, working on hundreds of civil and criminal cases. That experience solidified Bachmann's strong support for efforts to simplify the Tax Code and reduce tax burdens on family and small business budgets.