President Obama: “the United States government has no interest in running GM.”

As the Washinton Post reports, the president has an interesting way of not running GM:

The Obama administration will play a key role in reshaping General Motors’ board of directors over the next six months, potentially giving it even greater control in the management of the storied American manufacturer.

The president’s auto task force plans to consult with the company as it replaces a majority of its board, a White House official said. 

How generous of the government to “consult with” a private company before overhauling its board of directors. (Of course, GM did take money from the government and could not have been ignorant of the risks of doing so. Nonetheless, the extent of government intrusion here is not a good precedent.)

The other day, Rush Limbaugh recalled a prediction he made: “Folks, I apologize ‘cause I really do get tired of saying, ‘I told you.’… But I said when the Obama administration takes this over, they’re going to reject whatever these companies come up with ‘cause Obama wants to run them and give them to the unions, essentially, and that’s just exactly what has happened here.”

Ridiculous, right? Well, maybe not. From the same Washington Post report:

Under the government’s proposed reorganization for General Motors, the union health plan and the company’s bondholders would give up much or most of those claims in exchange for an equity stake in the reformed GM.

Given the magnitude of the swap, many analysts think those two entities could wind up with a majority of company stock.

So, the US government will turn the company over to the unions. But don’t worry – the US government has no interest in running GM. And besides, Obama has assured us that he is not a socialist!