"Success", Detroit Style

"Success", Detroit Style [loot, rape and plunder of the tax payers for Detroit and Wall Street]

Auto bailout loss estimate drops to $28B

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Washington -- The Treasury Department late today lowered its estimate of losses from the $85 billion auto industry bailout to $28 billion.

The Treasury Department last year predicted it would lose $30.6 billion; today, the government in a letter to congressional leaders reduced that estimate to $28 billion.

The announcement came after both General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC reported positive news this week. GM repaid its outstanding $5.8 billion in U.S. and Canadian loans, while Chrysler reported a first-quarter operating profit.

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"The auto industry has undergone significant restructuring, and prospects for repayment of government investments in the industry have improved," Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said in a nine-page letter to Congress. "GM and Chrysler have increased sales and revenues."

At one point, the Treasury estimated the total cost to taxpayers of bailing out banks and automakers could be $500 billion -- or 3.5 percent of Gross National Product -- but could now cost less than 1 percent, or $87 billion, the government said.

The government owns 61 percent of GM in exchange for swapping about $42 billion in loans. It also owns 56 percent of GMAC Inc. as part of its $17.2 billion bailout and owns 10 percent of Chrysler as a condition of its $12 billion bailout.

Geithner's letter noted the government has ended its $3.5 billion auto supplier support program.

But some in Congress have criticized the government's touting of GM's repayment.

Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, called GM's repayment a "money shuffle"

-- since the automaker used unused government bailout funds to make the repayment.

"The taxpayers are still on the hook, and whether TARP funds are ultimately recovered depends entirely on the government's ability to sell GM stock in the future," Grassley said.

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