Club for Growth 
AIG’s 5-Year Plan(0)
It makes you want to laugh. News headline: “AIG on track for 5-year payback.”
So it’s come to this. Our nationalized companies now have Soviet-sounding five year plans. We all know how that worked out.
According to UPI, AIG’s CEO said “called the AIG’s undisclosed plans ‘Project Destiny.’”
So maybe there is a plan, and maybe not. But it’s a five-year plan if there is one.
Full Story»20 More Banks Go on the Dole
From the BailoutSleuth: “The Treasury Department has made investments in 20 additional banks, adding $539 million to the amount of taxpayer money it has committed to U.S. financial institutions.”
This Bank is Actually Bailing Out Customers
ING Direct is forgiving over $860,000 in mortgage payments to 500 contest winners.
Club Statement on the Auto Bailout
Club for Growth Pleased with Rejection of Auto Bailout, Urges White House to “Just Say No”Washington – The Club for Growth is pleased with the Senate’s rejection of the auto bailout. It is, at least, a temporary victory for American taxpayers. While Senator’s Corker’s substantive proposals might be the reforms needed to save the auto companies, these changes should happen in the context of a bankruptcy proceeding, not a taxpayer bailout.
At the same time, the Club for Growth urges the White House to reject plans to use a piece of the $700 billion TARP money to salvage the auto bailout. This would be a grievous mistake.
For starters, the auto companies are not “too big to fail.” America is lucky to have a thriving car manufacturing industry—it just happens to not be in Detroit. The bankruptcy of the big three auto companies will not have systematic catastrophic effects on the overall economy.
Second, bankruptcy is not a death sentence. It will give these companies an opportunity to restructure their balance sheets. In fact, bankruptcy will give them a new lease on life so that they will not need government financing.
Finally, as the federal government considers stepping in to save the day, it is important to consider how we got to the mess we’re in. Management and labor certainly deserve their share of the blame, but so does the government itself. Congressionally-imposed CAFE standards forced auto companies to make cars Americans don’t want to buy, contributing significantly to the companies’ troubles. How can we trust the federal government to save the auto companies when they played a major role in nearly killing them?
“The last thing the American taxpayers need is the federal government managing the auto industry from Washington,” said Club for Growth President Pat Toomey. “The federal government’s interference in the past is part of the reason they are in this mess. We urge the White House to drop plans to reconstruct the auto bailout in some other form. As Nancy Reagan used to say, ‘Just say no.’”