GMAC is looking like they’re going to get more bailout money, $3.5 billion more to be exact. Just another drop in the bucket? If so, then here is my bucket, the taxpayers won’t mind will they? It’s just a little bit of cash. The Wall Street Journal broke this story:
GMAC Financial Services is close to getting approximately $3.5 billion in additional aid from the U.S. government, on top of $12.5 billion already received since December 2008, according to people familiar with the situation.
The announcement, expected within days, will coincide with GMAC taking additional steps to absorb losses related to its mortgage operations, these people said. The cleanup is designed to return the Detroit-based finance company to profitability in the first quarter of 2010, according to one of these people.
There are fundamental issues at play here. The American government continues to operate as if bailouts will save the economy, they continue to be believe that “saving” jobs for today is worth the greater losses to jobs and economic growth in the future. And $3.5 billion is a lot of money to be pissing away. It might not seem like it any more, given the number inflation our minds have been subjected to over the past couple years, but these kinds of “drops” are how a nation winds up over $12 trillion in debt.