HoodaThunk?

Shortly after the Obama administration forced the removal of GM’s CEO, Fritz Henderson was named (selected, not elected?) as the new boss. It wasn’t even 2 weeks before he publicly suggested that GM might have to enter bankruptcy, an event we were all told could not be allowed to happen. Here we are, 2 months later and we’ve now gotten to witness this one-time titan of America’s industrial might file for Chapter 11. (I think it’s 11. Of course they’re writing new stuff to deal with the administration’s contortions on the matter so it might be a whole new chapter by now.) The US taxpayer, with the Obama team as managers, now “owns” better than 70% of what was a publicly held though distinctly non-governmental company not even a year ago. Hey, what could go wrong with that arrangement, eh? After all, Obama says it’s just a short-term thing so the company can emerge stronger than ever and pay off all this money he’s thrown at them – with interest, no doubt.

But wait. Does that sound familiar, somehow? Could it be that we’ve tried this scheme before?

General Motors is trying to prove that it is the little engine that could. But the bankrupt automaker may never fully climb the mountain ahead of it, if Amtrak is any example.

Some analysts say the federal government’s effort to prop up the nation’s largest auto manufacturer is eerily similar to a 40-year effort to revive the nation’s ailing railroad system. Billions of taxpayer dollars later, Amtrak still needs the government to survive — and critics say General Motors appears to be headed down the same track.

“I see no hope whatsoever for the situation,” said Wendell Cox, a policy consultant who sat on the government-appointed Amtrak Reform Council a decade ago and draws parallels to the GM intervention today.

Yes, we’re all very happy with the cash Amtrak has paid back and we’re all just delighted with the impressive train service we have as a result of the government’s takeover. Any bets about whether GM will fare better?