Obama expects GM, Chrysler to repay loans

Posted on Thursday, July 30th, 2009 at 2:23 PM EDT.

President Barack Obama said on Wednesday that General Motors Co and the Chrysler Group were companies worth saving, but he expects both to repay their government loans, Reuters reported.

Obama’s comments in Raleigh, N.C., came as his administration released preliminary figures showing dealers sold more than 16,000 vehicles in the first days of a government-sponsored program aimed at spurring auto sales and lifting U.S. automakers financially, the news service said. The impact on GM, Chrysler and Ford Motor Co. was not immediately clear with passenger car sales outpacing those of pickups and sport utilities. More specific information was expected to be released next week by the U.S. Transportation Department, Reuters said.

“If GM and Chrysler were willing to do what was necessary to make themselves competitive,and if taxpayers were repaid every dime they put on the line, it was a process worth supporting,” Obama said in Raleigh. “We saved hundreds of thousands of jobs as a result and expect to get our money back.” (Reuters)

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