akerson. i know you're a busy man running a big company. we appreciate what you do and we appreciate you taking the time to be with us this morning. >> thank you, mr. chairman. >> we will quickly move to our third witness. and if the staff can help us set that up because we have to get out of here in about 15 minutes. >> thank you. >>> yesterday house and senate republicans spoke to were roers about proposed changes to the federal budget process. that's next. and federal reserve chairman ben bernanke will be on capitol hill this morning to talk about the u.s. economy. that gets under way in about 30 minutes at 10:00 eastern. live coverage here on c-span3. republicans introduced bills to the house and senate revamping the budget process, the legislation would make it more difficult for congress to pass spending bills without first having passed the budget. some of the bills gop supporters spoke to were roers about the legislation. >> thank you all for coming. the american people are not happy with how congress and the administration manages

. >> reporter: we met dan akerson, c.e.o. and chairman of general motors since september of 2010, along a detroit assembly line producing g.m.'s volt electric car, what it calls a symbol of its rebound. >> we've got a second chance here. a million jobs are saved. the industrial infrastructure and the manufacturing base of america in large measure is still intact. in fact, it's prospering. all three of the big auto makers are now profitable for the first time since maybe the '60s or '70s. >> reporter: the 63-year-old akerson is a naval academy graduate who's run several telecommunication companies but never an auto maker. when you took over did you look at the place and go, "gee whiz? how screwed up is this?" >> well, there were some long nights. >> reporter: u.s. taxpayers have recovered nearly half of their $50 billion investment in g.m. when the u.s. treasury took a majority stake in the company back in 2009. the government still owns 500 million shares and if it wants to sell and just break even, g.m. stock will have to do

akerson, had no conversation with folks at the white house concerning this incident? correct. >> no conversation with people you or anyone in general motors had conversation with people at t.a.r.p., and who handled the now defunct task force? no conversation at treasury regarding the issue? >> i had a conversation with mr. massad earlier this week on another general matter and observed to him i was going to testify today, but other than that, no conversation. >> anyone else at general motors that you know of talk to someone in the administration? talk to mr. lahood about this issue? >> no, sir. >> okay. now yield to the chairman of full committee. >> thank you, mr. chairman. welcome. >> thank you. >> i'll be brief. the question here is not whether or not gm is making good cars and whether or not it's coming back. i think it is, and we take great pride this that, and i think the president did last night. is this, in your history, recognition and as far as you know a typical response to a typical catastrophic event? is this less aggressive or more aggressive in their re

i think they both take some credit and i agree with dan akerson, it was a success. >> bob, you were aublican? >> who, me? yes. absolutely. i would call myself -- senator right republican. >> right. are romney and santorum on the wrong side of this? >> yes, they are, because i hate it when the conservative spokesmen fail to tell the whole truth. and romney can say, well, a private bailout would have been preferable. of course it vo have been and we tried that. but, hello, the banks were totally out of money. everybody was out of money, even the federal government was out of money, but the difference is, the federal government owned the printing press. that was the only source of money in late 2008 and early 2009. >> but there might have been a ford, bob, and the entire industry would have shrunk. would ford have been able to stay afloat with the supplier ares, would they have been disrupted too much? ford would have gone under, too? >> yes. exactly. where ford was lucky was that they had a big problem in 2007, and they securitized the whole company and created a $35 billion cash pile.

tonight the "cbs evening news" will have an interview with general motors ceo daniel akerson. >>> we begin with the seattle times reporting that a crimestoppers group has bought that funeral plots around the graves of josh powell's two children. he set the fire that killed the boys and himself. his family wanted to bury powell next to the children sdpliefrnl the sacramento beast says a man and woman spent four days trapped in their porsche in the snow. the man hiked for miles through that snow until he found a spot where his cell phone would work. he's being treated for frostbite. >>> niagara falls review reports that one of the original flying wa lindas will walk across the falls on a tightrope. it's been his dream since he was six years old. >>> bad news for the host of dessert first. devoting their front cover to her and the story she's being let go after management found out she took recipes from other hosts. >>> an oak tree in england that may look a little familiar. >> what do you think? >> a reresemblance to e.t. >>> in national weather report sponsored by party city. nobody h

this is the target that dan akerson has said time and again, they're slightly better than ford.hrysler. but way far away from hyundai at 10.4%. that's the profit margin. they would like to get up to 9% or 10%. that's the goal from general motors. quickly take a look at shares, up about 4% on the day. not surprising given the fact that, you know, this is an improvement over last year. $3 billion. guys, when we put out this note earlier today about the improvement in the bottom line from gm, put it out on twitter, immediately i got a flurry of tweets and comments from people essentially saying, you know what? how come these guys aren't giving more money back to the government? they've already repaid the government in terms of the bailout. but look at some of these comments that we're getting on twitter after gm posted its most profitable year ever. one man wrote, great, now time to give back. bailout. someone wrote, what about taxpayers? what do they get? mike reiten wrote, more hard earned american taxpayer dollars down the drain. guys, that's just a flavoring of what i saw on tw

akerson with us, and you know the reteen here. swearing in and then the five minutes and we go from there. raise your right hand. solemnly swear or affirm the testimony you're about to give is the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth. let the record show the witness answered in the affirmative. you were here for the first panel, get five minutes, lenient with that time as you saw, and then we'll go to questioning and hopefully get this done before we have to go to vote. >> i did the same thing, turn on the microphone there if you would, and then just pull it close. should have a red light there. >> got it. >> there go. >> good morning. i welcome the opportunity to testify today and stand bind a car that all of us at general motors are proud of. allow me to start with some volt history. gm unvailed the volt con cement at the january 2007 detroit auto show. in june of 2008, the old gm's board of directors approved the volt product for production well before the bankruptcy and the infusion of government funds. the batter