I’ve been amused by all the liberals who keep pining away for OWS to become a real force for social[ist] change. They keep writing articles and posts saying “Let’s hope the OWS leadership is wise enough to do X and Y and then perhaps even Z,” giving advice about how they would run the movement and imagining a scenario in which the OWS folks aren’t a dysfunctional group of morons.
I’m tempted to comment “and if only monkeys would get organized and build a banana farm! It’s nice to dream about a world where chimps were smart and could accomplish anything, with of course you as their leader, but sorry, they’re chimps, OWS is chumps, and neither will accomplish anything more than screeching, flinging poo, raiding piles of food, causing local chaos, and picking lice out of each other’s hair. The most we can hope is that some budding Jane Goodall will study their behavior and explain up-twinkles to the rest of us.”
The $23.6 billion represents a 25 percent loss on the feds $60 billion direct “investment” in GM. But that’s not all that taxpayers are on the hook for. As I explained previously, Uncle Sam’s special GM bankruptcy package allowed the company to write off $45 billion in previous losses going forward. This could work out to as much as $15 billion in tax savings that GM wouldn’t have had had it gone through a normal bankruptcy. Why? Because after bankruptcy, the tax liabilities of companies increase since they have no more losses to write off.
This means that the total hit to taxpayers, who still own about a quarter of the company, could add up to $38.6 billion. That’s even more that the $34 billion on the outside I had predicted in May.
But it’s OK, ‘cuz the president’s campaign supporters got paid off.
We know how Kagan’s going to vote, because she essentially told us in her confirmation hearings, when she said the federal government could force us to buy brocolli. She’s a totalitarian.
Really, Wickard was one of the worst decisions in court history, not just in how awful the reasoning was, but in what a devastating effect it had on the nation. This upcoming decision is an opportunity to finally try to reverse some of the damage.
