Taxpayers Could Lose Billions from General Motors Revamp

May 28, 2009— -- As the nation's largest automaker continues down the road towards a widely-expected pit stop in bankruptcy court, taxpayers could end up providing an additional $30 billion with no guarantee that General Motors will repay all of the money it has received.

That would be in addition to the nearly $20 billion the government had already pumped into the failing automaker .

"I don't know how much we're going to recover," a member of President Obama's administration told ABC News today.

The automaker faces a government-imposed deadline of Monday to either restructure or file for bankruptcy protection. Bankruptcy now seems the likely option, making GM the latest American icon to fall during this recession.

GM hopes for a quick restructuring that will eventually lead to a leaner, profitable company. But that move is likely to cost taxpayers billions of dollars.

General Motors today announced a new proposal offered to a number of bondholders as part of its ongoing restructuring process, but even that offer appears to be bringing the company into Chapter 11. The offer is contingent on GM filing for bankruptcy.

"Today's step is a positive step along the way to a successful restructuring," the administration official said this afternoon, steering clear of talk about bankruptcy, saying GM is a publicly-traded company and such a statement would have adverse impacts.

The proposal to the bond holders would swap out the more than $27 billion currently owed to them in return for 10 percent common equity in the newly restructured GM. In addition, the debt holders will have the right to purchase up to 15 percent in additional equity in the new company. Already, a group representing 20 percent of those debt holders have agreed to the terms.

Still, another group that represents average Americans who own GM debt today rejected the offer, saying the proposal is grossly unfair because it gives the UAW five times more dollar value per claim than the bondholders.

The Treasury has set a deadline of 5 p.m. Saturday for the bond holders to accept the plan. The administration official said it will review the number of bond holders who agree, how much they are owed and who they represent when deciding if enough have agreed to the proposal.