Obama Officials Lied About Their Role In Terminating the Pension Benefits of Non-Union GM Employees

This seems big.

Emails obtained by The Daily Caller show that the U.S. Treasury Department, led by Timothy Geithner, was the driving force behind terminating the pensions of 20,000 salaried retirees at the Delphi auto parts manufacturing company.

The move, made in 2009 while the Obama administration implemented its auto bailout plan, appears to have been made solely because those retirees were not members of labor unions.

The internal government emails contradict sworn testimony, in federal court and before Congress, given by several Obama administration figures.

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Delphi, a General Motors company, is one of the world’s largest automotive parts manufacturers. Twenty thousand of its workers lost nearly their entire pensions when the government bailed out GM. At the same time, Delphi employees who were members of the United Auto Workers union saw their pensions topped off and made whole.

The White House and Treasury Department have consistently maintained that the Pension Benefit Guaranty Corporation (PBGC) independently made the decision to terminate the 20,000 non-union Delphi workers’ pension plan. The PBGC is a federal government agency that handles private-sector pension benefits issues. Its charter calls for independent representation of pension beneficiaries’ interests.

So the Administration made a ruthless decision to benefit its union allies over non-union workers. And then claimed they had not made this decision at all; an "outside" group, the PBGC, had made the decision. They were as much the victims here as anyone else, you understand.

Is that true?

Well, a meeting of "the entire bailout team" was to occur in April 2009 to discuss, among other things, "pension issues."

But after the Friday meeting, [a PBGC staffer named Joseph House] emailed PBGC staffers Karen Morris and John Menke. “We’ve been disinvited,” he wrote. “It’s for the best.”

“Who uninvited us?” Morris replied.

“Treasury,” House responded.

If Treasury is "disinviting" the PBGC, the agency with the actual statutory power to make decisions about private-sector pensions, from discussions about pensions, in what possible sense is the PBGC making these decisions? They weren't even permitted in the room.

So, among other things in play:

Obama's team lied. Yet again.

Obama's team made a cut-throat, client-service decision to favor its own voters over other similary-situated citizens. Again.

Obama's team broke the law (the PBGC has the power to make these decisions; Tim Geithener does not). Again.

And Obama's crony socialism once again punishes tens of thousands of working citizens in order to advance his crony socilalist agenda, all the while accusing Romney of doing similar things. But with the crucial distinction that Romney was a private businessman, whereas Obama is the Chief Executive of the United States of America.

Obama Officials Lied About Their Role In Terminating the Pension Benefits of Non-Union GM Employees&bodytext= This seems big. Emails obtained by The Daily Caller show that the U.S. Treasury Department, led by Timothy Geithner, was the driving force behind terminating the pensions of 20,000 salaried retirees at the Delphi auto parts manufacturing company. The...&topic=world_news"> posted by Ace at 03:11 PM

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