By Mark Kleis<\/p>\n
A top Senate Republican, Charles Grassley, questioned the Obama Administration regarding the recent announcement by General Motors\u00a0that all federal loans had been repaid. Grassley believes that the loans were in fact paid back with other federal bailout funds \u2013 not from profits due to the operation of the automaker.<\/p>\n
GM announced on Wednesday that it had fully repaid the $6.7 billion in loans from the U.S. government, and $1.4 billion in loans to the Canadian government. Today, according to\u00a0Fox News<\/em>, a Republican Senator has questioned the legitimacy behind that announcement.<\/p>\n Senator Charles Grassley accused both the Obama Administration and GM of misleading taxpayers about the true status of the automaker\u2019s government-sourced loans. Grassley accused the automaker of using funds from a different part of the government funded bailout in order to pay back its loans.<\/p>\n Grassley\u2019s charge was verified by the inspector general behind the bailout, who oversees the Trouble Asset Relief Program (TARP) funding. Special inspector general of the TARP program, Neil Barofsky, told the Senate Finance Committee and\u00a0Fox News<\/em> that GM used bailout money out of an escrow account in order to pay back other government loans. Grassley mentioned in his letter to treasury secretary Timothy Geithner that a form filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) showed $6.7 billion worth of taxpayer funds were sitting in an escrow account available to GM.<\/p>\n Grassley questioned Geithner, asking for public clarification about why GM was allowed to use taxpayer funds from the escrow account in order to pay back a taxpayer-funded loan. \u201cIt appears to be nothing more than an elaborate TARP money shuffle,\u201d said Grassley in his letter.<\/p>\n Following GM\u2019s triumphant announcement on Wednesday, Vice President Joe Biden said the repayment was a \u201chuge accomplishment.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThe bottom line seems to be that the TARP loans were \u2018repaid\u2019 with other TARP funds in a Treasury escrow account. The TARP loans were not repaid from money GM is earning selling cars, as GM and the administration have claimed in their speeches, press releases and television commercials,\u201d wrote Grassley.<\/p>\n source: <\/em>LEFTLANENEWS.COM<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n