This is a rush transcript from "On the Record," May 27, 2009. This copy may not be in its final form and may be updated.
GRETA VAN SUSTEREN, FOX NEWS HOST: And now, let me be the very first to congratulate every single one of you viewers. You are the soon-to-be new owners of General Motors, or as we're going to soon call it, "Government Motors." Yes, the big day looks like it will be Monday. GM is expected to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy. The latest restructuring plan for GM calls for the U.S. government -- that means you -- to own about 70 percent of the company.
For more on this, joining us live are Alexis Glick, vice president of business news for FOX Business Network, and Steve Moore, senior economic writer for The Wall Street Journal.
Alexis, congratulations. You're the new owner.
ALEXIS GLICK, FOX BUSINESS NETWORK: Yes, you know, I'm smiling, grinning from ear to ear. I should be in a state of shock. But frankly, I think a lot of us saw this coming. The great part of this, too, is not only are we the proud owners of General Motors at this rate, but oh, by the way, we've invested roughly $20 billion in General Motors. We have invested, oh, I don't know, close to $10 billion, $12 billion in GMAC, the financing unit. And we're going to invest about $50 billion in this bankruptcy restructuring, and that won't be the end of it. By the end of the day, Greta, this might be $100 billion. This could be $200 billion. It's unbelievable!
VAN SUSTEREN: It is, indeed, and who would have guessed that we'd all become entrepreneurs, you know? I had no clue. Steve, in terms -- now that we're the new owners, or soon to be new owners, do we have an experience, meaning the government, running any of these businesses?
STEPHEN MOORE, WALL STREET JOURNAL, "THE END OF PROSPERITY" CO- AUTHOR: Well, we do with Amtrak, the Postal Service...
VAN SUSTEREN: How are we doing...
(CROSSTALK)
(LAUGHTER)
MOORE: Not too well. And in fact, it's hard to point to any company in any country that's run by the government that runs a profit. I mean, this is -- this is going to be a millstone around the neck.
VAN SUSTEREN: (INAUDIBLE) in and out. I mean, the government thinks that we're in and out.
MOORE: But that's -- that is mythology. I mean, what is likely to happen is that the government is going to continue to pour money in this. Remember when we talked about this a month ago, I predicted it would just be month after month we'd pour money into this. And the problem is, you know, it's not just General Motors. Now we own General Motors, Chrysler. We own AIG, the biggest insurance company. We own banks.
Whoever thought, Alexis, that we'd see this kind of situation of a kind of -- it really is a kind of American-style socialism. And we have adopted a system of kind of crony capitalism in America, where we put together big business and big government, and that's not a very good combination.
(CROSSTALK)
VAN SUSTEREN: Alexis, is there -- go ahead.
GLICK: I was just going to say the interesting thing that we've learned -- I literally learned this about a half hour ago coming out of The Washington Post, is there is a report this evening that they're suggesting that the new 13-member board of General Motors will be a combination of six board members coming from the existing General Motors and five or six newly appointed members that the government will select.
And oh, by the way, the existing six members from the former General Motors, the General Motors as we know it of today, they'll have a say in the make-up of those members, as well. We're going to give a seat to the VEBA, which is the UAW health care trust, and perhaps a seat to the Canadian government for their investment, as well. We are going to participate in the future growth of this company.
MOORE: That's why...
VAN SUSTEREN: You know, Steve, I mean, that's -- I -- I mean, first of all, let's start with what Alexis said, six current board members. I mean, we're -- we're (INAUDIBLE) they may be delightful men and women, but they failed.
MOORE: That's right.
VAN SUSTEREN: So they should be out. I mean, we...
MOORE: That's right.
VAN SUSTEREN: I mean, look, there's no suggestion that they've been roaring successes.
MOORE: Right.
VAN SUSTEREN: And so now we're going to keep them. That's not a good idea.
MOORE: Right.
VAN SUSTEREN: In a few minutes, the viewers are going to hear an interview from a car -- a guy who owns a car dealership. I bet not one person on the board has ever had any experience selling a car, and you're going to hear why our next guest is going to be so enraged by this, but...
MOORE: Yes, there's -- look, there's 200,000 people or so who work for General Motors and GMAC, so this is massive company. I don't want to see those people lose their jobs. No American wants those people to lose their jobs. The problem is, we keep pouring money into a failed model, and that's exactly, I think...
VAN SUSTEREN: But...
MOORE: ... that's your point. Does anybody out there really believe that the combination of the government and the United Auto Workers running this company is going to turn a profit? We've already seen what happened last week, where Congress was telling General Motors what kind of cars to build. We want them to be fuel-efficient, we want them to be green...
VAN SUSTEREN: Which -- which is why you both should stick around for this next segment. I'll say good-bye to both of you and thank both of you, Steve and Alexis.
Content and Programming Copyright 2009 FOX News Network, LLC. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Transcription Copyright 2009 CQ Transcriptions, LLC, which takes sole responsibility for the accuracy of the transcription. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. No license is granted to the user of this material except for the user's personal or internal use and, in such case, only one copy may be printed, nor shall user use any material for commercial purposes or in any fashion that may infringe upon FOX News Network, LLC'S and CQ Transcriptions, LLC's copyrights or other proprietary rights or interests in the material. This is not a legal transcript for purposes of litigation.
Get all the stories you need-to-know from the most powerful name in news delivered first thing every morning to your inbox