Fudging The Numbers

Yesterday the Daily Caller posted an article listing some of the facts in the bailout of General Motors that seem to have been overlooked in the President’s claim to have saved the company.

The article reports:

Car dealerships’ lots are filling up with unsold trucks and SUVs because GM built more vehicles than it can sell in order to inflate sales claims and artificially boost its profits, The Daily Caller has learned.

The Detroit automotive giant records sales for vehicles in dealers’ inventories before car buyers make their purchases, said Mark Modica, a National Legal and Policy Center associate fellow.

Obviously the fake sales numbers will be revealed at some point in the future when the cars are still sitting on the dealers’ lots. The truth will conveniently not be revealed until after the November election.

The article further reports:

Third quarter results won’t be made public until after the November election, allowing Obama to tout the company’s short-term success while masking troubles that are not yet apparent to voters.

Here we have another reason voters need to pay attention.

The article concludes:

“The question is if [GM] is viable enough to ever repay taxpayers,” Dalmia said. “It’s pretty clear that taxpayers aren’t ever going to be repaid.”

Rep. Kelly, the Pennsylvania car dealer, predicted an economic resurgence that would impact the auto sector if Mitt Romney becomes president.

“If Governor Romney is elected,” he said, “you’ll see reinvestment, you’ll see people come back to this economy.”

Please follow the link above to read the entire article. The comments are also very interesting. One commenter reminds us that in the process of taking over General Motors the government took away 20,000 pensions from non-union Delphi workers. One of the basic aspects of the General Motors and Chrysler arrangements worked out by the government was the transfer of large amounts of money to the unions. That needs to be mentioned when the President claims he saved the auto industry (which he will) during any debate that takes place.