Friday, June 05, 2009
By Matt Cover

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio)

(CNSNews.com) - House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) said that the Obama administration’s plans for General Motors are “lunacy,” and that Congress needs to establish a special oversight body to serve as a watchdog now that the administration has purchased a controlling stake in the company.
 
Speaking at his weekly press conference Thursday, Boehner said that when the government aided Chrysler in the 1970’s, the legislature was involved. This time, Boehner said, the administration did not use the normal legislative process.
 
“When the government got involved with helping Chrysler in the late 1970’s,” said Boehner, “there were hearings, there were oversight hearings afterward and we ought to have the same thing happen here.”
 
Boehner said that the Obama administration, while saying it did not want to run GM, would most likely actually run the company by stealth by loading up the board with its people.
 
“My concern is that, what action is the government going to take in terms of these decisions?” he said. “The president said, well, we’re not going to be in the business of making decisions for General Motors. Well the first thing they’re going to do is load up the board and control the board at General Motors.”
 
As part of GM’s government-negotiated restructuring agreement, the White House will appoint all but two of the members of the company’s board of directors. Also, the White House will exercise its ownership stake in any decisions regarding the company’s board.
 
Boehner said that these plans show that the government will be involved in GM’s business, despite Obama’s assertions to the contrary.
 
“So the government is going to make the decisions,” said Boehner. “Secondly, one only has to look at what happened several weeks ago when the government basically coerced the auto companies to stand there and agree to a CAFE (corporate average fuel economy) standard that cannot be met unless the auto companies force Americans to buy cars that they don’t want to buy.”
 
The Obama administration has made a point of its demand that GM produce smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles than it does now, rejecting GM’s initial proposal in part because it did not include sufficient plans to produce enough hybrids and high-mileage cars.
 
The top House Republican called the Obama administration’s actions “lunacy,” saying that, ultimately, the public would have to pay for the administration’s automotive adventurism.
 
“This is lunacy! And all of this is going to get stuck on the backs of middle-class taxpayers,” Boehner said. “Not only are they going to have to pay for the [auto] bailout, but they’re going to pay much higher prices for these cars they don’t want to buy because of the mandates that are coming from the government.”
 
The government’s involvement in GM, Boehner said, has no “exit strategy,” a fact that will leave the taxpayers “out to dry.”
 
“They [taxpayers] are paying for the government takeover of GM, with no exit strategy,” Boehner said. “Washington is hanging the middle class out to dry.”

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