General Motors is hosting 500 clients at a luxury Arizona spa with taxpayers’ money. The Sheraton Wild Horse Pass Resort & Spa features these amenities:

…two 18-hole Troon-managed golf courses, the Aji Spa, a 17,500 square foot spa with 17 treatment rooms, the Koli Equestrian Center for riding lessons, trail rides and outdoor events, … tennis courts and jogging trails…. …four pools with cascading waterfalls and a 111-foot waterslide modeling the ancient Casa Grande Ruins … [a] 2-1/2 mile replica of the Gila River that meanders through the resort grounds with scenic boat rides to shuttle guests to the Whirlwind Golf Club and nearby Wild Horse Pass Casino…. a 17,376 square foot ballroom and an abundance of scenic outdoor venues.

Some relevant data:

• GM took $15.4 billion in bailout money in the past six months, without which it would have failed earlier
• GM is just weeks away from possibly declaring bankruptcy anyway (June 1 deadline)
• GM posted its first-quarter results today — a $6 billion loss
• GM began cutting 3,400 U.S. salaried jobs in March to get costs under control and qualify for more bailout money

What is wrong with this picture? Back on April 20, when he was making nice with public opinion to get bailout favor, GM North America President Troy Clarke said:

In these unprecedented times, GM is reinventing every aspect of our business, including our organizational size and structure, to create a lean and agile company…

Well, not quite “every aspect” as it turns out. GM’s annual “spa days” are beyond the reach of the budget cutting knife. One wonders how the newly jobless auto workers feel, as they spend their summer looking for work, about the fat cats lapping it up in Arizona. Or how the average American taxpayer feels, eating hot dogs on a budget vacation in the family camper, about the opulent poolside barbeques where the big wigs will be feasting.

Related:

Hot Air — Shocker: Ford beats Government Motors in Q1:

“Beats” being a relative term of the amount of red ink, of course. Oddly, the New York Times and the AP neglected to mention this rather notable occurance, but BizzyBlog did the work that American journalists apparently won’t — research. For the first time in 80 years, Ford outsold GM, bringing in a topline number of $24.8 billion in sales, against the bailed-out automaker’s $22.4 billion…