General Motors May Never Pay Back All the Bailout, and They Paid Politicians to Turn a Blind Eye

Billy Long said he wasn't going to Washington to scratch other peoples' backs. While we were told Billy Long wouldn't sacrifice our vote to special interest by other Decepticons like Sarah Steelman, yet, a large number of 48 hour reports filed with the FEC shows Billy Long was bought by special interest groups in the final weeks of the campaign.

Yesterday, we looked at how Billy Long's votes in Congress may be influenced by corporate agriculture companies that are growing very powerful over the world's food supply like Monsanto. Today, we will look at how his vote may be affected by the UAW, the bailouts, and General Motors.

Billy Long says he opposed the bailouts. In fact he was "fed up" that Washington would abuse taxpayers and their hard earned money with these bailout programs. That didn't keep him from taking money from General Motors through their PAC. While GM still owes tax payers billions, and it's now being predicted they will never pay it all back, Long and other politicians took money from GM to pad their campaigns. It's shameful.

From City AM:

GENERAL Motors (GM) yesterday finalised terms for a stock offering of $13bn to repay a controversial taxpayer-funded bailout and reduce the US Treasury to a minority shareholder.

The automaker, led by boss Dan Akerson, plans to sell 365m common shares, or 24 per cent of its common stock, at $26 to $29 each, raising about $10bn at the midpoint, according to updated initial public offering papers filed with the SEC.

In addition, GM said it planned to sell about $3bn of preferred shares that would convert to common shares under mandatory provisions, a less risky form of equity that could attract dividend and growth-fund investors. The IPO would value GM at around $41bn, making it all but certain that US taxpayers would face a loss on the automaker’s bailout.

So we have to ask, was General Motors padding the pockets of top political candidates in hopes they will turn a blind eye to the fact GM will probably never repay the bailouts as they promised? Will Billy Long, who accepted money from GM turn a blind eye to GM's debt? It would be far easier to pass it on to taxpayers than actually collect every dime, although they will try to tell us they collected every dime.

Obviously, there is a real concern that GM donated large amounts of money to political campaigns and you have to wonder what GM expects in return. A million in campaign contributions to the top 460 federal candidates is a far less expense than paying back the billions. Considering the US government's 61% ownership in GM, not a dime should have left GM for any political contribution period. Any politician who took money from GM should be ashamed, especially fed up with bailouts Billy Long.

Donations to Billy Long From Special Interest Groups 2010 Election