General Motors had a chance to be a hero and now the company is quickly changing to villain status.
Not only is GM dropping the ball on its promise to deliver tens of thousands of ventilators, but it is also allegedly trying to price gouge taxpayers during a crisis.
Trump is Pissed
Democrats have been begging Trump to invoke the powers of the Defense Production Act.
This would force businesses to make whatever products the government sees fit at a set price, something Trump does not want to do unless he absolutely has to.
GM stepped up early, offering to immediately convert its lines to make ventilators and produce 40,000 of them “very quickly.”
Now, GM has stated it will only be able to produce about 6,000 ventilators and will not be able to deliver them until late April.
As usual with “this” General Motors, things just never seem to work out. They said they were going to give us 40,000 much needed Ventilators, “very quickly”. Now they are saying it will only be 6000, in late April, and they want top dollar. Always a mess with Mary B. Invoke “P”.
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 27, 2020
It Gets Worse
On Friday, a deal was expected to be announced, but it seems as though it has hit a massive snag on even getting the 6,000 ventilators produced.
President Trump slammed GM for demanding more than $1 billion to produce the ventilators as well as demanding the costs to retool the factory for ventilator production upfront.
Now, if the $1 billion is for 6,000 ventilators, that is a number that is way out of line, far more than any report we have seen to this point on the “usual” cost for ventilators.
This report contradicted an earlier statement made by GM (you can read the full statement here), where the company said it would be “contributing its resources at cost.”
At that point, Trump just went off, slamming GM again and even demanding they open up an Ohio plant that has been closed…
General Motors MUST immediately open their stupidly abandoned Lordstown plant in Ohio, or some other plant, and START MAKING VENTILATORS, NOW!!!!!! FORD, GET GOING ON VENTILATORS, FAST!!!!!! @GeneralMotors @Ford
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) March 27, 2020
That, however, makes Trump look a bit foolish because GM does not own that plant any longer, something he actually touted with a tweet in May 2018…
GREAT NEWS FOR OHIO! Just spoke to Mary Barra, CEO of General Motors, who informed me that, subject to a UAW agreement etc., GM will be selling their beautiful Lordstown Plant to Workhorse, where they plan to build Electric Trucks. GM will also be spending $700,000,000 in Ohio…
— Donald J. Trump (@realDonaldTrump) May 8, 2019
Ford is still in the picture on this, but what role GM will play remains to be seen.
New reports are now breaking that Trump has invoked the powers of the DPA to mandate manufacturers make whatever the government needs them to make rather than continue to bargain with companies.
Now, I could be wrong on this, but my take of the DPA is that the government will now set the contract price and companies must make the equipment as deemed by such a contract (although the pricing must be fair market price).
We will update as necessary as this is a developing story.
IF GM IS GOING TO NEED HELP IN THE FUTURE NO SUCH HELP SHOULD BE GRATED
I agree and no more GM products for me.
THEY MOVED A LOT OF THEIR PRODUCTION FROM KOKOMO TO MEXICO YEARS AGO. SO SAD TO SEE THOSE PARKING LOTS AND PLANTS EMPTY OVER THERE AND NOW THIS!!!
GM is a fraud…first, they needed a bailout, then they moved their productions abroad and now this? SHAME ON YOU GM, I am going to share this on FB