Out of the $50.7 billion that GM received in federal bailout funds, $11.4 billion was never paid back.

See GM discovers that government bailouts come with golden chains attached by Matthew D. Mitchell and Tad DeHaven of Mercatus. Excerpt:

"Yet it’s hard to feel sympathy for GM. For decades, the industrial behemoth has benefited from a host of government-granted privileges. As Trump correctly noted, taxpayers rescued the company in 2009. And out of the $50.7 billion that GM received in federal bailout funds, $11.4 billion was never paid back. The company also benefited from the infamous “Cash for Clunkers” program, which offered a government handout to those who traded in perfectly good older cars for destruction, as long as they used the windfall to purchase a new car. While that program provided a short-term taxpayer-funded boost to companies like GM, there’s no evidence that it had any long-term benefit for the economy as a whole.

And GM’s government gravy train didn’t come to a stop in 2009. According to a subsidy database constructed by the advocacy group Good Jobs First, GM has since received another $700 million in federal grants and loans. While most of that figure comes from programs administered by the Department of Energy, the company received money from the U.S. Export-Import Bank and the National Science Foundation as well.

It’s also worth mentioning that GM’s ongoing employee pension woes could conceivably lead to another taxpayer bailout down the road. GM’s pension obligations are underfunded by approximately $30 billion, far beyond even the $18 billion insured by the federal Pension Benefits Guarantee Corporation (PBGC). Were the PBGC compelled to take on GM’s pension obligations at some point, the taxpayers could be on the hook for a bailout if the agency doesn’t have the resources to cover its own obligations.

General Motors also benefits from privileges in the tax code, though it would prefer to benefit more. The $7,500 tax credit that Trump mentioned in his tweet is limited to the first 200,000 electric vehicles an automaker sells. GM is already close to meeting this cap, so the company has actually been lobbying to have it lifted, so as to stay competitive with the other brands that haven't yet.

GM benefits from the so-called “ Chicken Tax,” too — a 25 percent tariff imposed on light trucks in 1964 as a response to European tariffs on U.S. chicken exports. The tariff has survived because it helps insulate politically powerful U.S. automakers from foreign competition.

The lesson here is that with government dollars come government shackles. Though lucrative in the short run, bailouts, subsidies, and protections are no guarantee of perpetual profitability. In fact, by insulating a firm from the realities of the market, they likely encourage poor decision making."