Auto bailout cost estimated at $30 billion

WASHINGTON, Dec. 8 (UPI) -- The Obama administration has forecast a loss of $30 billion on its General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group rescue efforts, two anonymous U.S. officials said.

The figure is in the same ballpark as estimates made by the Government Accountability Office and the Troubled Asset Relief Congressional Oversight Panel, The Detroit News reported Tuesday.

The government's investment in GM and Chrysler amounts to $82 billion. GM has received $50 billion of that figure, including about $43 billion given in exchange for a 61 percent stake in the company.

Last month GM said it will pay the government back at the rate of $1 billion per quarter or $4 billion a year. GM Chairman Edward Whitacre Jr. has also said GM is considering using $8.1 billion of a $17.4 billion escrow account to speed up payments, the Detroit Free Press reported.

Fiat, which owns 20 percent of Chrysler, must pay back $6 billion of the government's $12 billion Chrysler loans, much of which have been forgiven, the News said.

In addition, the government has loaned $13.5 billion to GMAC and now owns 35.4 percent of the firm that finances car owners and dealerships.

In President Barack Obama's economic address Tuesday, he said steps to rescue the automobile industry, "were not decisions that were popular or satisfying; these were decisions that were necessary."