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Obama: GM Shows Tough Decisions Paying Off

   White House   18 November 2010

   President  Obama says Thursday's initial General Motors New York Stock
   Exchange  offering  validated tough decisions made at the start of his
   administration  to have the federal government help ailing automakers.
   The  president  spoke  after  GM announced the initial public offering
   (IPO) marking the resumption of official trading in GM stock.
   With all of the difficulties that have come Obama's way where the U.S.
   economy  is  concerned,  he  has  been able to point to a major bright
   spot,  an  auto industry that appears to be retooling and revitalizing
   itself so it can be profitable, adaptive, and competitive.
   On Thursday, General Motors, which took a $50 billion bailout from the
   U.S.  government  in 2009, began trading again on Wall Street. The IPO
   reduced  the  government's  ownership stake in GM, at least initially,
   from 61 percent to about 36 percent.
   President Obama underscored the significance of this in a statement in
   the  White  House  briefing  room.  American  taxpayers, he noted, are
   positioned  to recover more than the original government investment in
   GM, a sign that the American auto industry is again on the rise.
   "Our  automakers  are  in  the  midst of their strongest period of job
   growth  in  more  than  a  decade.  Since GM and Chrysler emerged from
   bankruptcy the industry has created more than 75,000 new jobs. For the
   first  time in six years, Ford, GM and Chrysler are all operating at a
   profit."
   The  government  has the potential of reducing its stake in the new GM
   still  further  to  33  percent  through  the  buying  and  selling of
   additional  shares,  returning  still  more money used in the original