Leading up to his 2015 State of the Union speech, President Obama was “once again trumpeting his administration’s intervention in Detroit.” Politifact,
Obama said, “The auto companies have now repaid taxpayers every dime and more of what my administration invested in.”
We’ll note that losses from automaker loans were expected to be higher, and the action taken by the Obama administration resulted in GM and Chrysler paying back the bulk of their loans.
But to say they’ve paid back “every dime and more,” requires considerable cherry-picking. Obama doesn’t count any outstanding loans made by the Bush administration, which seem to have been made with Obama’s quiet support and which were restructured (resulting in some losses) under the bankruptcy Obama’s Treasury helped manage. And to get into the black, he counts money the automakers paid back for Bush administration loans.
The statement contains an element of truth but ignores facts that would give a different impression. That’s Mostly False.
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