GENERAL MOTORS OUTRIGHT LIES IN  AN AD ABOUT PAYING BACK ITS GOVERNMENT LOAN:

You may have seen this commercial floating around...the CEO of General Motors says he understands why people didn't want to give the company a second chance.  Then he says they've paid back their bailout loan "in full" and five years early.  But some people say the ad is misleading.

A more accurate account would be that the U.S. government gave GM a total of $52 billion, but only $6.7 billion was considered a loan.  The rest was in exchange for 61% of the company, and the government agreed to sell it back once the company could afford to buy it.

In reality, GM paid back the $6.7 billion so they could apply for a separate $10 billion loan from the Department of Energy that has a lower interest rate.

And to do it, they used money from a $13.4 billion escrow account the government created for them during the bailout.  In other words, they used one government loan to pay off another.

Or...they just paid taxpayers back with their own money!