Sen. Alexander (R-TN) Wants to Give Govt’s GM, Chrysler Shares Back to Taxpayers

Gerrit Lansing / June 10, 2009

On a blogger conference call this morning, Senator Lamar Alexander (R-TN) discussed a bill he introduced last week that would distribute the Federal government’s recently acquired GM and Chrysler stock to taxpaying Americans.

“Instead of the Treasury owning 60 percent of shares in the new GM and 8 percent of Chrysler, you would own them, if you were one of about 120 million individuals who paid taxes on April 15,” Alexander explained. “This is the fastest way to get the stock out of the hands of Washington and back into the hands of the American people in the marketplace where it belongs. The stock certificates would be in your name, not that of your government.”

The Senator said that giving taxpayers stock will benefit both the companies and shareholders.

“It would be helpful to GM and Chrysler if they had 120 million Americans interested in their success.”

Questions remain on whether the auto shares should be distributed based on how much one pays in taxes; more taxes paid, more shares received.

Alexander thinks it’s a “simpler, cleaner proposal” if the shares are evenly spread amongst all taxpayers. (more…)