I attended Wednesday’s 8:00am (8am?!?) House Oversight and Government Reform Committee hearing entitled:

Volt Vehicle Fire: What Did NHTSA Know And When Did They Know It?

The witnesses were killer:

National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA), Barack Obama-appointee Administrator David Strickland.

And General Motors (GM), Barack Obama-appointee CEO Dan Akerson.

The scope of the hearing was a bit too narrow – leaving out some fairly important attending facts.  Like, say, the (at least) five other Chevy Volt fires that have occurred besides the one being discussed.

This hearing was all about a single June Volt blaze.  The battery burst into flames about three weeks after a test crash at and by the National Highway Transportation Safety Administration (NHTSA).

A fire about which Obama’s NHTSA did tell the Obama White House.

But a fire about which neither Obama’s NHTSA, the Obama Administration nor Obama’s GM told the American people for nearly six months – and then did so only when forced by a looming Bloomberg news story.

But:

The White House had no role in the decision to delay disclosure of a fire that broke out in a crash-tested Chevrolet Volt, the Obama administration told Congress on Friday.

Of COURSE not.

But:

Joan Claybrook, a former administrator at NHTSA believes part of the reason for the delay was the “fragility of Volt sales.” Yet she also believes that “NHTSA could have put out a consumer alert, not to tell them [customers] for six months makes no sense to me.”

Obama is running for reelection in great part on the non-success “success” of the $85 billion auto industry bailout.

On which he once promised we’d make money.  Then had to begrudgingly up the (admitted to) loss from $14.3 billion to $23.6 billion.

And We the Taxpayers still own 500 million shares of GM stock – which is tanking.  So that loss number still has growth prospects.

That auto industry bailout “success.”

Obama mentioned GM prominently in Tuesday night’s campaign – I mean State of the Union – speech:

America: Built to (Be) Last

And had as one of his bio-props – I mean guests – a GM plant manager.

The takeaway from all of this?

For Obama, notifying Americans of their potential immolation-by-Volt is of less import than his keeping his gig past November.

—–

And there’s tremendous immolation potential.

The one NHTSA Volt fire discussed at the hearing was not the only NHTSA Volt fire that occurred.  In November, there were two others.

After conducting three different tests two weeks ago, the NHTSA found that the Volt’s battery either caught fire or began to smoke in two out of the three.

So that’s three Volt fires – all in the hands of the Obama Administration, all after crashes.

But Obama’s GM now says they’ve fixed the problem – and the Obama Administration has (shocker) given GM the good-to-go.

So all is well, right?

Ummm, no.  There were in fact three other, private-owner Volt fires.  None of which involved Volts that were in crashes.

—–

There was the Volt that in April burst into flames – twice.  These were the fires that led to Obama’s NHTSA beginning its investigation.

And then in November another Volt leapt into flames.  While Obama’s NHTSA was still investigating – but after the NHTSA-Obama Administration-GM cover-up had come to light (get it?).

The home that garaged this particular immolated Volt gets its power from Duke Energy – which after the fire felt compelled to issue a warning:

Duke Energy officials want anyone who has a (Volt) charging station to stop using it until they know the devices are safe.

So the charging station is at least suspect.  (So too the charging station cable?)

We still have no idea what caused these fires.  The only thing we do know is that they were not caused by crashes – because these cars were never in crashes.

So why did Obama’s NHTSA, the Obama Administration and Obama’s GM singularly focus on (but one of three) post-crash Volt fires?

When none of these three privately-owned combustible Volts had been in accidents?

We – still – don’t know.  Anything.

But don’t worry: The Obama Administration has declared that the Obama-owned GM Chevy Volt is perfectly safe – just in time for Obama’s reelection campaign.

And GM’s new Volt ad campaign, which is pretty much entitled:

If You Don’t Like the Volt, You Don’t Like America

Don’t you feel safer?

Romney fits right into the Left’s absurd anti-capitalism, “robber baron,” Occupy Wall Street anti-1%-er, scorched earth storyline.

Romney is very wealthy, which for Obama and his Democrats is the height of eee-vill (except – these Donkeys are mostly rich…).  Never mind that Romney’s wealth is right in line with many past Presidents and candidates – including 2004 Democrat nominee John Kerry.  (The difference?  Romney earned it, Kerry married it.)

And as Romney recently told us, he these days pays the 15% capital gains tax rate – rather than the (absurdly) higher income tax rates those of us receiving salaries do.  Never mind that this is perfectly legal (and good fiscal policy, and “fair”) – it is culled right from the Leftist, Warren Buffett “I pay less in taxes than my secretary” fraudulent script.

—–

How did Romney make his coin?  Via the epitome of eeeee-villll free market entities – the venture capital firm.  His was, of course, Bain Capital.

Yes, Bain sometimes invests in failing companies.  Some of which they determine to be not worth saving, so down they go.  Welcome to Reality, Boys and Girls.

See, President Obama – it’s kind of like your “investing” in Solyndra, and Fisker, and Beacon Power, and….  Only President Obama – yours never work out.  And Bain would never dump money into such absurd companies or concepts.  And Bain uses their own coin, not ours.

Bain has created far more jobs than they’ve closed down – which again makes them the polar opposite of Obama, Inc.  There is no Staples, Sports Authority or myriad other Bain-like successes to which Obama can point and say “See, my government ‘investment’ did that.”

“‘Shovel-ready’ wasn’t as shovel-ready as we expected.”  And “created or saved” doesn’t cut it – and fooled only the foolish.

—–

And, of course, the Obama Administration is chock full of Wall Street 1%-ers.  Whom they vilify and legislatively assault by day – and shake down for campaign cash by night.  Heck, Democrats receive more contributions from Bain Capital than do Republicans.  Obama has his own self received $80,000 from Romney’s old digs.

And the new Obama Administration acting Director of the Office of Management and Budget, Jeffrey Zients, worked for Bain Capital.

And behold Obama, Inc. campaign adviser Stephanie Cutter.  Who just wrote a scathing memo about Romney’s Bain days – subtitled “Profit at Any Cost.”

Cutter sounded like a sworn enemy of private equity.  Except a few years ago, she was a spokeswoman for J.C. Flowers, a private-equity firm….

Presumably Cutter wanted to be as well compensated as possible, by J.C. Flowers and the “several Fortune 500 companies” her communications firm served, according to her bio.

Just another poster-child for Obama, Inc.’s “Poverty for Thee – Not for Me,” DC-Wall Street Nexis.

For Obama, Inc., Bain’s good for campaign fodder – and campaign cash.  And, as it turns out, even more than that.

—–

We’ve just discussed Bain Capital investing – vis a vis Obama, Inc. “investing.”

One of the biggest Taxpayer Money “investments” is the $50+ billion in General Motors (GM).  Which has been an unmitigated disaster.

President Obama once promised us we’d make money on the auto bailout – then had to begrudgingly up the (admitted to) loss from $14.3 billion to $23.6 billion.  And We the Taxpayers still own 500 million shares of GM stock – which is tanking.  So that loss number still has growth potential.

GM is foundering because they insist on doing fabulous things like overproduce the unprofitable, unpopular, combustible Chevy Volt.  And in 2010 file for more green non-energy “energy patents – a la Solyndra, Fisker, etc. – than any other company in America.

As GM continued to sink like a stone, guess who Obama’s Auto Task Force asked for assistance in trying to turn around their colossal automotive failure?

Why, Romney’s ex- Bain Capital – and their fellow Wall Streeters.

Oops.

Obama Administration officials working on a turnaround of General Motors and Chrysler asked for advice from the consulting firm Bain & Company, among other consulting firms, speaking to partners there at least twice, according to multiple sources familiar with the conversations.

In addition, a partner at Bain & Company later detailed his advice on the auto companies when he was contacted for a follow-up review by the office of the inspector general for TARP, according to that office.

—–

Obama will this year be trying to convince We the People to give him four more years in the White House.

Not because of anything he’s done – because what he’s done has been atrocious – but to prevent an evil 1%-er from succeeding him.

And if that proposed successor is Romney, Obama, Inc. has the anti-Bain Capital dossier already prepared and at the ready.

But when it came down to it, Obama, Inc. had to admit that they had with GM (and just about everything else) absolutely no idea what they were doing.

And they had to go to…Bain Capital, and their fellow eeee-villl Wall Streeters, to ask for help in trying to salvage their incredible failure.

Whose expert advice he desperately sought as he amateurishly blew up General Motors – and our $50+ billion.

The attempted spoonful-of-sugar to help force down the bad Progressive medicine they are pushing.

Which brings us to General Motors (GM) and one of the Leftist ideological windmills at which they tilt – the Chevy Volt.

We the Taxpayers have spent billions subsidizing the Volt.  And continue subsidizing it still.

We bailed out GM ($50 billion) and Chrysler to the tune of $83 billion.  On which the Obama Administration now admits we’ll lose (at least) $23.6 billion.  (President Obama once upon a time promised us we’d actually make money on the deal.)

We the Taxpayers are still stuck holding 500 million shares of GM stock – on which we are poised to lose tens of billions of dollars more.

But you know what makes all of this terrible-ness so much less worse?  GM spent some of our money on – the Chevy Volt official song and music video:

Don’t you feel better?

The GM-official “GMVolt” YouTube video page description of which reads as follows:

Chevrolet’s official Chevy Volt fun and educational song set to a historical collage of developments and progress as captured on the website GM-Volt.com.

“Educational” – like the aforementioned government elementary school songs are “educational.”

Now, a defense could be proffered that companies write songs and cut videos for advertising purposes all the time.  Fine and true.  That being said, this Volt song was (as far as I can find) never made into an actual ad.

GM’s official YouTube posting of it has only (as of this writing) 30,048 views.  And it does not appear on the aforementioned GM-Volt.com’s video page.

The song is a total (if unintentional for GM) joke – and we get that it is.  This is not the end of the world.  It is just another ridiculous aspect of the ridiculous from-the-start Chevy Volt – and auto bailout.

And the joke gets worse.

At the 2009 Los Angeles Auto Show, GM also gave us – the Chevy Volt Dancers:

A troupe with a routine devised to accompany the Chevy Volt tune.

Just what every car company needs – a band with a floor show.

Do not attempt to operate heavy machinery for up to 24 hours after viewing either of these videos.  If you’ve watched both, you may want to contact your physician.

—–

All of this is yet another reason to be thankful that We the People have spent nearly $60 billion propping up General Motors and subsidizing the Chevy Volt.

Don’t you feel thankful?

For the automobile industry bailout, the Lord Overseer was Car Czar Steven Rattner.

This is the same Steven Rattner who late last year reportedly paid a $6.2 million Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) fine and accepted a two-year ban from associating with broker-dealers or investment advisers.  For an alleged “pay-to-play” New York state pension fund kickbacks scheme he orchestrated after leaving Washington and his Czar-ship.

DC-Wall Street nexis, anyone?  Crony Socialism, anyone?

His current gig – besides being a (shocker) MSNBC Morning Joe “Economic Analyst”?  Managing New York Mayor – and 1%-er billionaire – Michael Bloomberg’s personal and philanthropic assets.

DC-Wall Street nexis, anyone?  Crony Socialism, anyone?

Ex-Czar Rattner was last week out and about – rewriting large swaths of the history of our $82 billion sinkhole auto “investment.”  If this publicity run is any indication – and it undoubtedly is – Ex-Czar Rattner’s book on same may not quite be worth the price of admission.

Let’s take a look at some of what he said.

Ex-Czar Rattner: “It’s unambiguous that it was a success.”

There’s that word again – “success.”  It’s magic in the government’s hands.

Like Social Security is a “success.”  And Medicare.  And Medicaid.  And Freddie Mac.  And Fannie Mae.  And the Post Office.  And Amtrak.  And….

So let’s look at the auto bailout numbers, and see what kind of a “success” it’s been, unambiguous or otherwise.

The Obama Administration recently, dramatically upped our estimated loss – from $14.3 billion to $23.6 billion.  This titanic rise represents the Administration finally acknowledging the GM stock loss we are poised to endure.

We the Taxpayers own just over 500 million shares.  For us to break even, these shares must be sold at $53 per.  The post-bankruptcy Initial Public Offering (IPO) price was $33.  The stock has since tanked – now trading at around $20.

(All of this particular “success” we at Less Government chronicle at www.BailoutCost.com.)

That is – by Ex-Czar Rattner’s definition – an “unambiguous…success.”  You might deem it otherwise.

—–

Which brings us to our next Ex-Czar Rattner assertion:

Ex-Czar Rattner: “The auto bailout will cost taxpayers $14 billion.”

But we already know this to be blatantly untrue.  Again, the Obama Administration just last month upped our bailout loss from $14.3 billion to $23.6 billion.

Did Ex-Czar Rattner miss that memo?

In a recently published epilogue to his aforementioned tome, Ex-Czar Rattner acknowledged that about $19.4 billion of the coin the government put into GM before the 2009 bankruptcy is “lost money.”

Wait a second.

So is that $19.4 billion lost before the bankruptcy – plus $23.6 billion lost after the bankruptcy?  For a whopping total taxpayer auto bailout loss of $43 billion?

It would seem to be so.  As the $19.4 billion pre-bankruptcy figure doesn’t figure in any divisible way into the Obama Administration’s before-and-after post-bankruptcy numbers.

And it is obviously not reflected in the “$14 billion” Ex-Czar Rattner just fraudulently claimed the bailout would cost us.

Fantastic.

—–

There is then this:

Ex-Czar Rattner: “We never said the taxpayers would be paid back.”

Not at all true – per his ex-boss.

President Obama late last year said we would in fact turn a profit on the auto bailout.  Which is more and better than just “be(ing) paid back.”

—

There is much more to be mined from this recent Ex-Czar Rattner wellspring – which we will do in the near future.

But all of this Ex-Czar Rattner mess is just the latest attempt by the Obama Administration and its minions – current and past – to tell a corrupt story about the government’s crushing auto bailout failure.

To paint the rosiest of pictures, when all We the People actually received – and will receive – are the thorns.

President Obama has been repeatedly, desperately trying to make his patently absurd auto bailout “success” claims a theme for his 2012 reelection campaign.

So as to have something domestically positive – patently false though it may be – on which to run.

And to try to make We the People comfortable with – and indeed instill – the notion of government usurpation of the private sector to this multi-billion dollar, bailout degree.

If reality matters, neither ploy should work.  Neither, thusly, should the larger ploy that is the reelection effort.

And of the Barack Obama Administration’s puffing up for political and campaign purposes GM’s alleged “recovery” from its bankruptcy.

(A bankruptcy, by the way, that could have just as easily transpired without our $50 billion.  But I digress….)

It’s not really much of a recovery when one considers the fact that GM’s thus far $7.4 billion in 2011 profits is greatly fostered and augmented by the Obama Administration’s years-on-end GM federal tax exemption.

A Crony Socialist boon to the tune of as much as $45.4 billion.

(How’s that for federal deficit reduction?  Is absolutely nothing at all GM’s “fair share?”)

GM’s is an even less impressive “recovery” when we remember that We the People still own just over 500 million shares of GM stock.  On which to break even we need to sell at $53 per – and it is currently trading at around $23.

Which sets up We the Taxpayers for a more than $15 billion loss.

Not quite the GM “success” President Obama is repeatedly touting on the Trail to 2012.

(For all your GM bailout stock news – and how we can actually be made whole – please visit our www.BailoutCost.com.)

GM stock is in fact trading at nearly $10 below its around $33 initial post-bankruptcy price.

A 30+% drop due largely, methinks, to GM’s glassy-eyed, fervent infatuation with utterly unproven, unproductive, unprofitable and unpopular green “energy” – and all of its attending absurdity.

—–

There wasn’t in 2010 a company on Planet Earth (pardon me – Mother Gaia) that registered more green “energy” patents than GM.  You know, of the Solyndra, Fisker, Beacon Power, (and on, and on, and on,…) born-to-be-bankrupt variety.

Then, there’s the Chevy Volt.  The utterly unproven, unproductive, unprofitable and unpopular GM electric-hybrid vehicle.

Which costs GM $41,000 to make – and which GM sells for $41,000.  (Comparable class and size gasoline-only cars sell for around half that amount.)

This sterling unprofitability comes…

…after billions of dollars of government loans and grants for the Volt’s development and production.

Fantastic.

In short, the Volt appears to be exactly the kind of green-at-all-costs car that some opponents of the bailout feared the government might order G.M. to build.

Umm, yes.  Opponents like us.

Start with the $50 billion bailout (without which none of this would have been necessary), add $240 million in Energy Department grants doled out to G.M. last summer, $150 million in federal money to the Volt’s Korean battery supplier, up to $1.5 billion in tax breaks for purchasers and other consumer incentives, and some significant portion of the $14 billion loan G.M. got in 2008 for “retooling” its plants, and you’ve got some idea of how much taxpayer cash is built into every Volt.

Fantastic.

Explicably, the Volt isn’t selling.  Less than 4,000 thus far in 2011 – putting it on pace for about 6,000 for the year.

Inexplicably, GM is in 2012 increasing production to 60,000 units.

Fantastic.

GM was for a while explaining away these lackluster sales by claiming that the Volt was serving as a “catalyst.”  Bringing people into the showroom – who then leave instead in a Chevy Cruze.

(Which doesn’t explain the ginormous Volt production increase, but I again digress….)

“The Volt is leading to a lot of Cruze sales,” said Mark Reuss, GM’s CEO for North America. Customers are coming in to see the Volt, but “not everyone can buy a Volt,” Reuss said. The Volt has a starting price that’s nearly two and half times greater than the Cruze’s price.

In that respect, you can think of the Volt as more of a marketing device for GM than a revenue generator.

We the People were unwillingly, unwittingly forced to fork over $50+ billion in bailout coin and assistance for a – GM marketing device?

The Volt isn’t the Future of Transportation – it’s the Geico Gecko?

Here’s a thought – hire an ad agency.  It’s much cheaper.

The Volt is a “marketing device” – that a tippity-top GM executive admits is priced way too high to actually be sold with any frequency as, you know, a car.

“As we recover from this recession, the transition to clean energy has the potential to grow our economy and create millions of jobs – but only if we accelerate that transition. Only if we seize the moment.”

- President Barack Obama

Moment exorbitantly seized, Mister President.  Congratulations.  How’s it working for you?  For us?

And, as it turns out, the Volt wasn’t even serving as a “marketing device” after all.

General Motors will suspend production at its factory in Lordstown, Ohio that assembles Chevrolet Cruze for at least one week to avoid oversupply, as recovering Japanese inventories and slow fall sales have lessened demand for the car.

So it wasn’t the Volt so much as the Japan tsunami that was contributing to those Cruze sales.  It helps when the competition is under water – literally.

—–

Oh, and another thing – it appears Volts may be bursting into flames.

Specifically the plug-in charger for the Volt’s battery.  There were in April two Volt charcoal briquets.  GM said it wasn’t responsible.  And Volt proponents argued that we should wait to hear from experts before jumping to conclusions.

Fair enough.

Ok – a third Volt just recently immolated.  During the requested expert testing – while it was stored in a garage at a National Highway Traffic Safety Administration (NHTSA) testing center.

And a fourth Volt just went up in flames in the garage of a Mooresville, North Carolina home.  Which led the local power company to issue a warning:

Duke Energy officials want anyone who has a charging station to stop using it until they know the devices are safe.

Again, we don’t yet know for sure that the Volt charging stations are to blame.  It may (also) be the batteries.

As GM themselves inadvertently indicated.

General Motors believes the (NHTSA) fire occurred because NHTSA did not drain the energy from the Volt’s battery following the (test) crash, which is a safety step the automaker recommends, GM spokesman Rob Peterson said.

So emergency personnel, arriving upon the scene of accidents involving a Volt, must add to their list of responsibilities – draining the stupid electric car batteries?

Yes.

The fire’s cause – the battery puncture — led to questions about whether other automakers require batteries to be discharged of their energy following major crashes, the NHTSA official said. In addition, regulators are exploring protocols for who would do that – firefighters who respond first, for instance – and how quickly should they do it.

So said crisis workforce may have to prioritize draining Volt batteries above other things – like saving victims’ lives.

Emergency personnel may have to save drivers and passengers from their car batteries – before they save them from their injuries.

If they are able to do so before the batteries burst into flames.

Fantastic.

In North Carolina…

…even the possibility of a fire hazard from the chargers for electric cars is getting attention. Sources told Eyewitness News car maker General Motors, Seimen, which makes the charger, as well as the installer, Duke Energy, and the U.S. Department of Transportation have all been talking to investigators.

I for one would like to have these investigations bereft of Government Motors (and Government) involvement.  Else it looks very much like the fox investigating the fire hen house.

—–

These Powering Infernos must of course be properly placed in the broader context of the 2012 election.

Duke CEO Jim Rogers has been outspoken in his desire to see more electric cars and charging stations in the city for next year’s Democratic National Convention.

The Slogan?

Take the Heat for Obama and his Democrats in 2012.

ObamaCare.  The $878 billion alleged “stimulus.” The $30 billion bump (to $50 billion) of the General Motors bailout.  Cash for Clunkers.  Cash for Caulkers.  Dodd-Frank.  Lilly Ledbetter.  And on, and on, and on…

Then there’s the stuff the Obama Administration tried–and failed–to rush through the Donkey Congress (2009-2011).  But because these things were also so heinous and because the Administration and Congressional Democrats had already reached their Heinous Maximus quotient, they were unable to pile them on We the People. There was Cap and Trade.  And Card Check.  And Net Neutrality.  And…

Being stopped in Congress didn’t stop the Administration.  It didn’t even slow them down.  As President Obama said, there’s more than one way to skin these cats. These ways aren’t Constitutional.  They are, in fact, dictatorial.  But this from all appearances doesn’t bother Obama a whit. He is using his every Department, Commission, Agency and Board to jam through these terrible ideas–and more–via executive branch regulatory fiat. All of this goes a very long way towards explaining why we remain mired in plus-9% unemployment and less-than-1% economic growth.

Despite this non-stop, all-encompassing push of leftist policies, President Obama’s grievance-group base remains angrily, obnoxiously and often unintelligibly unsated (see: Occupy Wall Street). Though some of their anger is justified, at least from an Obama consistency standpoint. Remember January 22, 2009, two days after President Obama was sworn in? He then signed an executive order closing Guantanamo Bay.  Nearly three years later… ummm, not so much.

That same month Obama vowed to get us completely out of Iraq “in sixteen months” – which meant May of 2010.  In late October 2011 we look towards Mesopotamia and say – ummm, not so much(though Obama has now promised [again] that we’ll be out – by the end of this year.  We shall see).

Obama’s leftist base is angry at the slow pace of the illegal implementation of Cap and Trade and Card Check.  They’re angry that ObamaCare isn’t single-payer (even though it pretty much is).  And on, and on, and on…

But there is one item on the leftist laundry checklist to which President Obama has remained obdurately faithful to the point of fact-excluding, willful ignorance. I give you: Green alleged “energy.” It’s not just the Administration slow-walking or outright denying petroleum drilling.  Obama has turned the federal treasury into a Crony Socialist green “energy” venture capital firm.

It began with the $60 billion allotted to green “jobs” in the grotesque 2009 “stimulus” bill.  We handed said titanic check to the self-avowed Marxist Truther, then-Green Jobs Czar Van Jones. Yes, that Jones; the one who’s built an entire fraudulent, anti-capitalism career on green “jobs” and green “energy”–who, at that “stimulus” time, admitted he couldn’t define what a “green job” is and that in fact no one could.

But despite that monstrous, wasted sum, it was Solyndra’s half a billion dollars down the rat hole that finally brought the green “energy” fraud to greater light. Solyndra makes expensive solar panels.  Obama knew going in that Chinese-subsidized solar panels would make Solyndra’s unsellable, but he put his head down (in the sand?) and shoveled the coin therein anyway. A Solyndra veep was an Obama campaign coin bundler, but I’m sure that was just a coincidence. The Solyndra mess only raised further our antenna to the green “energy” scam. The Administration followed it up with $1.2 billion in loans to Abengoa Solar (Panel)  Inc.  (Warning: the website is in Spanish.)

This brings us to the Fisker fraud, where we gave $529 million to a Finnish car company to make the hybrid Karma.  Never heard of that model?  Here’s why – the base price for this hybrid is $96,000. And you thought the $41,000 Chevy Volt was a bargain.  Fisker is yet another doomed-to-fail green “jobs” move the Administration blithely, vigorously defends. The lack of clarity on whether or not our coin created gigs here or in Finland is important but is by no means the only problem.  The overriding concern is (or should be):  after tens of billions of dollars of demonstrable green “job” failures, this Administration is still willing to waste even more of our coin thereon.

Which brings us to General Motors (GM), on whose bailout we are on the verge of losing about $15 billion.  Government Motors, as we said, sells Volt hybrids for $41,000.  Volt hybrids cost GM $41,000 to make. It’s a zero-sum, non-profit product. GM has sold less than 4,000 Volts thus far this year.  For reasons that surpass understanding, they are ramping up production to 60,000 vehicles next year.

Making an unprofitable car is bad; making fifteen times as many non-profit cars as you have sold is worse. Adding a similar hybrid to the Cadillac line is worse still. But GM is all the way down with the green “energy” scam, way beyond merely making non-profit lemons.

GM last year received more green (non-energy) energy patents than any other organization on Planet Earth. Hopefully the thousand-and-one ways already listed have demonstrated this to be a total, miserable, pathetic, and expensive joke. And in bad joke harmonic convergence, GM spent $3 million to install solar panels at a (non-profit) Volt manufacturing plant in order to save $15,000 a year in electricity.

How’s that math for you?  Here’s some more. We the People own just over 500 million shares of GM stock.  For us to break even, they have to be sold at $53 per.  Right now they’re trading at around $25. Which puts us – as previously stated – at just under a $15 billion loss.  But there is a solution. GM is currently sitting on about $34 billion in cash.  Our 500 million or so shares x $53 = about $26.5 billion.

Here’s a thought:  Hey GM, why not buy us out and make us whole? Then your tilting at Leftist green “energy” windmills won’t continue to virtually ensure that we’ll lose tens of billions of dollars (the post-bankruptcy stock price was $34, meaning GM’s green “jobs” are doing a job on We the Shareholders).

Here’s another thought:  You, Gentle Reader, can help make this happen. We have a website: www.BailoutCost.com, which not only tracks to the penny the loss We the People are about to suffer on the GM bailout, it has a Pledge:

I will not buy any Government Motors products until they’ve paid back American taxpayers.

Let us all sign and get GM to buy us out of the bailout. Just once, wouldn’t it be nice to just break even on just one of these colossal governmental messes?

Indeed it would.

We have spoken often of this last four years being the Third Age of Bailout.

Where we have seen trillions of dollars of our coin shoveled out of D.C. in innumerable terrible directions.

• A $1.09 trillion, 29% increase in annual federal spending in just the last four years – from $2.73 trillion per annum to $3.82 trillion per annum – mostly directed in social justice, bailout fashion.
• $700 billion in Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) coin.
• $867 billion in alleged “stimulus” to create “or save” gigs.
• Cash for Clunkers.
• Cash for Caulkers.
• ObamaCare, with its untold trillions in costs, is a bailout just as much as – and bigger than – all those listed above.
• And on, and on, and….

Behold the Third Age of Bailout.  Where almost none of the things that were supposed to happen as a result of this cash avalanche – actually happened.

We were told the Age of Bailout would keep unemployment below 8%.  Instead, it soared above 10% – and has remained consistently ensconced around 9% ever since.

We are breaking records for the number of people on food stamps and living in poverty.

So have we learned anything with which to move forward?  The Barack Obama Administration obviously has not.

We have President Obama’s “jobs” bill and “deficit reduction” proposal, which are of the exact same sort of absurd, class warfare, social justice bailout pabulum to which we have been devastatingly subjected  these last four years.

Let us examine the myth – and the farce – of government “investment.”

Which is nothing more than more government spending.  Leftists call it “investment” because that is a free market word – so as to apply a false private sector veneer to this public sector mess.

Government “invests” all the time.  And it is – almost without exception – an unmitigated disaster.

We are now all learning of Solyndra’s $535 million taxpayer coin-fueled, Obama-fundraiser-bundler Crony Socialist, solar non-energy nightmare.

Which President Obama, Vice President Joe Biden and a whole host of other Administration officials told us was the future of energy and American jobs.

Given the Obama Economy, they were right – though unintentionally so, and not in the way they at least said they meant.

But we needn’t have wasted this half a billion dollars to find out green non-energy is nowhere near ready for prime time.

Because we spent more than $60 billion on green “jobs” in the 2009 “stimulus” bill.  About which Newsweek at the time said:

The working definition (of green “job”) paints a broad stroke: a job that’s good for the economy while simultaneously healing the earth. But that leaves lots open to interpretation-natural gas is technically a cleaner fuel than crude oil, but it’s still unsustainable - making it difficult, if not impossible, to measure whether eco-based jobs are being created and whether, as the administration has claimed, they’re the saviors of a sagging economy.

So Solyndra was bad money after really huge bad money.

But all of our green “jobs” “investment” folly was unnecessary.

Because Spain has spent the better part of the past decade dumping tons of… pesatas, Euros,…? into green non-energy – and have gotten nothing but broke in the process.

Those who don’t know idiocy are doomed to repeat it.

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Then there’s Government General Motors.  Another government “investment” that has been a huge, green energy-tinged disaster.

(GM,) whose stock price is lower now than it was at its post-bankruptcy Initial Public Offering (IPO).

A bankruptcy we were told the bailout would preclude.

GM stock is trading more than thirty points below the taxpayer break-even price.

The bailout, President Obama first told us, would make us money.  Seven months later, the Administration admitted we’d lose between $11 and $14 billion – and dishonestly claimed the loss they had said would be a profit was “less than the(y) originally expected.”

(E)x-Carlyle Group, DC-Wall Street nexus, Administration cardboard cut-out CEO Dan Akerson says the bailout “shouldn’t be measured on did it sell for $43 or $53 (a share) or did they lose a couple billion dollars.”

Who wants to “slap a 50-cent or a dollar tax on a gallon of gas.”…

(GM) last year received more clean (non-energy) energy patents than any other organization.

They are dramatically ramping up production of the unprofitable and unselling hybrid Chevy Volt.  And creating a like-model for Cadillac.

They have fitted an (again, unprofitable) Volt plant so as to be solar-powered.  Which cost $3 million – but only saves them $15,000 a year in electricity.

Those who don’t know idiocy are doomed to repeat it.

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Then there’s Obama’s “Digital Promise.”  Where the government plans to “invest” in technology for schools – largely to connect classrooms to the Internet.

(Wait…didn’t then-Vice President Al Gore – the inventor hereof – already promise we were to have done this by 2000?  Indeed he did.  We’re still paying phone taxes for that one.)

But is this “Digital Promise” inanity necessary?  No - we have 2009 “stimulus” evidence aplenty that the government is terrible at this, too.

Where the Leviathan spent $7 billion repeatedly creating/augmenting competitors to existing private sector Internet providers.  Who had invested their own money – and then had to compete against some more of their own money.

How’s that for creating uncertainty?

But the Federalies were even more – and more fundamentally – stupid.

98% of Americans have access to broadband Internet – solely via and thanks to the private sector.

(Which leads one to ponder – why is the government getting involved at all?  The free market seems to be working splendiferously well.)

The remaining 2% – for the most part – live remotely.  In the wilds of rural America.

There are two ways to connect to the Internet – wired-ly, and wirelessly.  Wired – with the digging and laying of cable and pipe – is obviously far more expensive than is wireless.  Especially so when trying to connect a single, rural abode.

So what format did the government time and again choose when engaged in their Internet “stimulus” folly?

Wired, of course.

Duh.

Those who don’t know idiocy are doomed to repeat it.

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Let us put aside for the moment the incredible invitation to Solyndra-esque, Crony Socialist corruption that government “investment” presents.

And its unconstitutionality – the Founding Fathers did not design the federal government to be a venture capital firm.

All of that aside, it has been proven time, and time, and time again that the government is terrible at allocating our money.

Simply, utterly atrocious at it.

Because no one spends other people’s money as wisely or as carefully as one spends his own.  It is basic, fundamental human nature.

It has been said that Socialism fails because it tries to root out human nature.  And Capitalism succeeds because it harnesses it.

The Third Age of Bailout – with its trillions of dollars in failed government “investment” – proves once again that these are immutable truths, which we continue to ignore at our great and growing peril.