A Full 10% of General Motors Bailout Paid Back
Nicolas Loris /
General Motors CEO Ed Whitacre should have thought twice about the title of his Wall Street Journal op-ed, “The GM Bailout: Paid Back in Full.” GM did announce that it would repay the $5.8 billion ($4.7 billion to U.S, $1.1 billion to Canada) remaining balance on the loans the automaker received from the U.S. and Canadian governments. GM is making good on the repayment early – the company had until 2015 to repay the full $8.4 billion loan. But the reality is that this accounts for only 10 percent of the full taxpayer bailout.
The loan repayment is a sign of progress for the struggling automaker, an undeniably good thing. With 90 percent of the taxpayer’s funds tied up in government-controlled equity, there’s still a long way to go to right this ship. Real progress will be made when the government turns GM back to the private sector.