Republicans who objected to the U.S. government owning part of General Motors should object to the government owning part of U.S. Steel.

According to U.S. Secretary of Commerce Howard Lutnick, the U.S. government is now a major shareholder in U.S. Steel.

According to Lutnick, the U.S. government now holds a golden share in U.S. Steel, which gives it the power outvote all other shareholders in certain circumstances. Lutnick stated:

This perpetual Golden Share prevents any of the following from occurring without the consent of the President of the United States or his designee:

• Relocate U.S. Steel’s headquarters from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.

• Redomicile outside the United States

• Change the name of the company from U.S. Steel

• Reduce, waive, or delay the $14 billion of Near-Term investments into U.S. Steel

• Transfer production or jobs outside the United States

• Close or idle plants before certain timeframes other than normal course temporary idling for safety, upgrades, etc.

• Other protections regarding employee salaries, anti-dumping pricing, raw materials and sourcing outside the U.S., acquisitions, and more.

I hope all the Republicans who justifiably objected, loudly and frequently, to the U.S. government purchasing shares of General Motors – earning the company the derisive nickname, “Government Motors” – remember to object to this arrangement. The board of directors of U.S. Steel and those who own the 226 million shares of U.S. Steel stock no longer really make the decisions for the company; now the U.S. government gets to veto the decisions listed above.

For those who don’t recall, at the dawn of the Obama presidency, in order to bail out the struggling Detroit car manufacturer, the federal government pumped $49 billion into General Motors, accepting shares of GM stock in return. The stock was gradually sold from November 2010 to December 2013; taxpayers ultimately lost $11.2 billion on the deal.

Before, during, and after the taxpayer bailout, GM continued to make millions of vehicles that could kill you if your key chain was too heavy. As I wrote back when it was revealed that GM had taken billions in taxpayer dollars and then covered up the fact that its cars were unsafe:

The American government should not own a car company because it inevitably creates a conflict of interest; the federal government is financially invested in the company making the cars and is hoping to make (or at least not lose) money off their sales, at the same time that it is inspecting, investigating, regulating, and punishing both that company and its rivals.

Cleveland Cliffs is an American steel production company that runs the Burns Harbor, Cleveland Works, Dearborn Works, Indiana Harbor, Middletown Works integrated steel plants. The federal government regulates them, but is also now a major shareholder in one of their rivals. How fair does that sound?

The American government should not own a car company, and it should also not own part of a steel production company, either.

If congressional Republicans do not object to this arrangement, the GOP position is simple. The U.S. government owning shares in private companies and directing a company’s decisions is socialism, communism, economic foolishness, and arguably a form of economic fascism. But that’s only when a Democratic president does it. When a Republican president does it, it’s perfectly fine.