While we endorse efficient fuel mileage for autos and trucks, we wonder is Obama trying to destroy the U.S. auto industry so we’ll have to line up like sheeple to ride his high-speed trains? Everyone here drives compact cars (though dogzilla lusts for a certain Honda SUV) all getting well over 34 mpg now, but we think Americans should be free to drive whatever the heck they want. ~CAJ
U.S. loses $1.3 billion in exiting Chrysler
Annalyn Censky
CNN Money
7/21/2011
NEW YORK (CNNMoney) — U.S. taxpayers likely lost $1.3 billion in the government bailout of Chrysler, the Treasury Department announced Thursday.
The government recently sold its remaining 6% stake in the company to Italian automaker Fiat. It wrapped up the 2009 bailout that was part of the Troubled Asset Relief Program six years early…
…As part of the loan agreement, Chrysler was given until 2017 to return the bailout funds. If it had taken the full term, the interest accrued on the loans could have significantly reduced the government’s losses.
Overall, $1.3 billion will not be recovered from the bankrupt Old Chrysler, but Massad still called it a “major accomplishment.”
That’s because the government originally expected it would lose much more on the auto bailout. Initial estimates from the Congressional Budget Office in 2009, predicted the government would lose $40 billion on the overall auto bailout.
Now it estimates, by the time the $80 billion program is completely wrapped up, taxpayers will have lost $14 billion…
The complete article is at CNN Money.
Obama Escalates His War on America: Demands Higher Fuel Efficiency From Automakers — 220,000 Jobs on the Block
Weasel Meister
Weasel Zippers
7/22/2011
Presidential vendetta.
Automakers are pushing back against an Obama administration proposal that would almost double vehicle fuel-efficiency standards, launching a new ad campaign warning of hundreds of thousands of job losses across the country.
The White House has long been negotiating with automakers and environmentalists over the enormous increase in fuel efficiency standards. But the automakers, who say the standards would stagger the auto industry, appear to be losing faith in the possibility of a compromise.
President Obama was hoping to get automakers to sign off on a nearly 100 percent increase in mileage standards by 2025, aiming for another Rose Garden announcement like the one in May 2009 when he announced they would raise it to 29.5 miles-per-gallon for model year 2012, on their way to 34 miles-per-gallon for 2016.
But now the White House has a much bigger goal in mind…
Read the rest at Weasel Zippers.
