U.S. government officials and others in the financial industry seem almost reluctant to own up to the criticism that they’ve long promoted toward General Motors. In a fact sheet on GM’s five-year plan, the company touts a report published in 2013 by the Wall Street Journal that attributed $1.4 billion of GM’s $26.7 billion in North American profits to taxpayer incentives. And while GM’s own U.S. executive vice president Mary Barra concedes that her company’s CEO-level executives believe government subsidies played a role in their success, she’s quick to note that GM also deserves credit for manufacturing consumer-friendly cars at the lowest possible cost — citing particular benefits from the company’s ability to shift production in fast cycles, something which she says more automakers are doing now. “People view us as a great public company that makes great products,” Barra says. “And that’s not an opinion. There’s no doubt that that’s a fact.”