I settled my debt with John Q Public last night.

[JohnnyRingo]

I was having a few beers and wings at my local tavern last night seated around the corner of the bar from JQ when I overheard one of his buddies bring up the UAW agreement with General Motors. This is a GM town with an Cobalt assembly plant nearby and former home of Delphi Systems so such conversation is commonplace here.

When JQ Public voiced his disapproval with the contract, citing the fact that such a bloated agreement wouldn't have been possible without his tax money, I realized I had the opportunity to do the right thing. I butted in to inform JQ that I was a GM retiree who indeed would have been left out in the cold had the government not intervened and loaned the automaker a portion of his taxes.

While Mr Public was trying to figure a way to extract his fat foot from his mouth I continued with some quick oral calculating. I told him that I didn't work for Chrysler, so I don't feel responsible for that half of his contribution, but certainly I owed him for putting up his share of the $350b that keeps me and the other 6,000 local retirees in beer and wings each month.

We weren't drinking on Country Club Drive and I know JQ was not one of the high-end taxpayers earning over a half mil so I figured he was one of the 93 million gracious Americans who invested a small amount of their hard earned money to keep the company alive. I told him that with most of the loan repaid this year I wanted to square up with him on the balance to ease his regret. I gave him his $3 back, told him we were now even, and asked that he follow my lead and put that union cash back into the local economy.

I don't know what he and his overtaxed buddies thought about that as I drained my glass and left, but I hope he at least left it as a tip for the underpaid single mother tending the bar.

[EmeraldCityGrl]

1. K&R

[Stuart G]

2. K and R

[mazzarro]

3. Wow!

That was a very strong way of telling some bigfooted-bigmouth rethug to STFU! Kudos to you my friend!

[Hassin Bin Sober]

4. k and r

[dana_b]

5. I love it!!

great move - I hope that it really made him (and his buddies) think.

[tk2kewl]

6. excellent

:thumbsup:

[catabryna]

7. Good for you!

K&R

[myrna minx]

8. .

:applause:

[sabrina 1]

9. Lol, what a great way to make your point!

[Shandris]

10. HAHAHAHA oh wow! I would DOUBLE his contribution...

...just to have seen the expression on his face when you did that! Way to go!

:applause:

[SpartanDem]

11. K&R

[lsewpershad]

12. Good for you

[TeamsterDem]

13. LOL I love it! Very nicely done! nt

[Scuba]

14. Nicely done. Thanks.

[JuniperLea]

15. Well played!

:applause:

That's an Oscar winning performance in my book! You had props, great moves and everything!

$3 is a small price to pay to put small minded ill informed JQ types in their place. You did the right thing!

[calimary]

18. Indeed! And your three dollars is probably more in his pocket than his fabulous

bush-given buck-98 tax cut did.

[eleny]

16. Smooth!

[BiggJawn]

17. Some loudmouth was ragging on public employees within earshot

of me once, going on and on about his "hard-earned dollars" being "taken at the point of a gun" to pay "lazy over-paid University employees".

I handed him a penny, and said "There! Now shut the fuck up, because I just gave you back your share of my paycheck for the next NINE HUNDRED AND SEVENTY-FIVE YEARS!"

[999998th word]

21. This stuff is great-I've done that with a quarter and also told them to

buy themselves a brain w/what's left over.

[Pacifist Patriot]

28. Brilliant!

[Ignis]

19. K&R. A little stilted in the phrasing, but I like your style.

If you'll take a little constructive criticism, don't edit yourself so much; let your natural voice through more often.

:thumbsup:

(No offensive intended. I'm a chronic "improver." :hi: )

[markpkessinger]

20. LOVE IT! K&R! n/t

[AllyCat]

22. Rock on! That is great!!

[Enthusiast]

23. Obviously the guy was a loyal Fox News watcher.

They don't know any better. What they do know is spoon fed directly from the fascists. It's a plague of stupid.

[OnlinePoker]

24. The loan was paid off...

...using taxpayer money from the 500 million shares of GM the government bought as part of the bailout (the loan was around $6.7 Billion). The government still holds the shares in GM and the price needs to be $53 per share for the government to break even. Share price is currently at $20.41 per share, down from the $33 share price GM went for on their IPO last year. This represents a value loss to the government of just over $15 Billion right now. Either way you look at it, the government is still on the hook for a lot of money until they divest themselves of the shares.

[Ikonoklast]

34. Figure in the loss of tax revenue if GM was allowed to fail.

Figure in the amount of taxpayer monies that would have went for unemployment for all those people, food stamps, etc.

Not just GM, but a host of supply-chain companies and their employees, as well. Hundreds of thousands out in the street.


Oh, and the resulting economic depression that would have followed, knocking one in three out of a job nationwide.


$15 billion looks like chump change.

That amount covers not quite two months of military expenditures in Afghanistan.

I'm sure you have no problem spending that money, however.

[Vinca]

25. I would have loved to have seen the expression on his face!

Nice going.:applause:

[MissDeeds]

26. Very well done!

K&R

[a kennedy]

27. Good for you......

:toast: :bounce: :thumbsup: :fistbump: :headbang: :yourock: :applause: :patriot:

[The Wizard]

29. Repubes are well versed

by Pox News and Rash Limbaugh in playing the victim. They support foreign military adventures that return very little to our economy as compared to what circulates into foreign governments. In essence, they suffer from cognitive dissonance compounded by thought disorders, loose associations and delusions. Critical thinking is not part of their equation.

[jorno67]

30. excellent!

[OnyxCollie]

31. I saw a guy wearing a Ford t-shirt yesterday.

"Ford- Built Without Your Tax Dollars"

[JohnnyRingo]

35. On the back it should have said "though they tried"

Ford was on board for the loan until they found out it wasn't their "father's kind of bailout".

The Ford board of directors, which still has family members in charge, were discouraged when they discovered the money had strings attached. Especially appalling to them was the condition that the government would take controlling interest in their company until the money was repaid. Ford descendent's would never approve of ceding control of their legacy to the government.

It was probably good for them they didn't, as Obama's panel immediately fired General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner. For me it was especially satisfying that, for once, someone in power wasn't blaming union workers for the company's financial woes.

[OnyxCollie]

32. Dupe.

[Overseas]

33. K&R. Well said.

[RoccoR5955]

36. WTG... Hopefully he didn't pocket it n/t

[KansDem]

37. Nice rebuke! This one's for you!

...oh, and these too!
...and


:9