More Lies: Gov’t Motors: Obama fudges math on auto bailout, $10.5 billion loss for taxpayers

This administration is absolutely incapable of being straight with the American people.

With final losses from the auto industry bailout near $15 billion, President Obama is using fuzzy math to claim that taxpayers lost no money on his administration’s portion of the rescue program, analysts say.

On the heels of the Treasury Department’s announcement Monday that it was selling its final shares of General Motors Co. acquired during the 2008-09 bailout, Mr. Obama seems more intent on claiming credit and avoiding blame than providing taxpayers with a final accounting of the bailout that also included Chrysler LLC and GM’s financing arm, Ally Financial.

“GM has now repaid every taxpayer dollar my administration committed to its rescue, plus billions invested by the previous administration,” Mr. Obama said in a statement after the Treasury announcement.

The White House didn’t respond to questions Tuesday about how the president arrived at his rosy mathematical conclusions. But analysts of the auto bailout said Mr. Obama appeared to be using a “last-in, first-out” method of accounting to justify his argument that all the bailout money committed has been repaid.