Open Letter to Ed Whitacre

Dear Ed,

I've just seen Government Motor's (GM) new television advertisement (bought with taxpayer funds) where you claim "...we have repaid our government loan, in full, with interest..."

This announcement comes after GM paid less than 7 billion dollars to the U.S. Treasury.

Your commercial implies GM only had one loan from the US Government, that it was less than 7 billion dollars, and that you are now free and clear of taxpayer bailout funds. One might even reasonably imply from your commercial that the funds you paid were out of earnings from GM since the loan.

You and I both know that this is not the case at all. The "loan" does not even begin to cover the amount of taxpayer-funded bailout.

Off the top of my head, I can demonstrate that GM received all of the following taxpayer bailout funding for GM's "second chance":

Auto Supplier Support Program: GM received not less than 2.5 Billion dollars of taxpayer money

Automotive Industry Financing Program: GM received not less than 49 Billion dollars of taxpayer money

This does not even include the 13+ Billion dollars of taxpayer money received by GMAC, GM's financing arm.

Let's also be honest about where the "loan repayment" money came from: you have paid off taxpayer loans with other taxpayer "investment" dollars, not earnings from car sales. I can read your SEC filings.

As to your remarks about paying the "loan" back "with interest", after hearing of your statements, even the White House had to issue a statement saying that the taxpayers will almost certainly LOSE MONEY on the GM investments. That is not interest; it's a loss.

I also recall that one of the lynchpin arguments in support of the Automotive Industry Financing Program was that it was necessary to save American jobs. Yet since the socialization of GM, 65,000 jobs were cut by GM. It seems redundant to point out that GM could have accomplished the same thing in bankruptcy restructuring without requiring the taxpayers to foot the bill.

This commercial of yours will go down in history as one of the most disingenuous commercials ever to be aired on American television. I could not even characterize your statements has half truths - the lies by omission in this ad are monumental and inexcusable.

I challenge you, Ed Whitacre, to immediately pull this ad and replace it with an ad that correctly lays out what GM has received from the American taxpayers, what has been returned to the taxpayers due to actual profits generated by GM, and together with the UAW beneficiaries of all this American taxpayer largesse, thank all the taxpayers for the help and beg us to be merciful on your failing, disingenuous welfare case of a corporation.