We just put General Motors in the hands of people who can’t even run our own government.

We just put General Motors in the hands of people who can’t even run our own government." is associated with Glenn Beck’s commentary during the 2008–2009 U.S. auto-industry crisis, when General Motors entered bankruptcy and the federal government, through the Treasury, became a major stakeholder as part of the Obama administration’s rescue plan. Beck used the line to criticize what he framed as an expansion of federal control over private enterprise and to argue that government mismanagement would be imported into the corporate sphere. The remark fits his broader on-air opposition to bailouts and “government takeover” narratives circulating in conservative media at the time.

The line is a pointed critique of government intervention in the private sector, using General Motors as a symbol of American industry. Beck’s contrast—officials who “can’t even run our own government” now “in the hands” of a major corporation—frames the GM bailout/partial nationalization as both a competence problem and a legitimacy problem. The rhetoric implies that bureaucratic mismanagement and political incentives will distort business decisions, threatening efficiency, innovation, and accountability. It also taps into broader anxieties about expanding federal power during crisis, suggesting that emergency measures can normalize state control over markets and shift responsibility away from owners and consumers toward political actors.