Is General Motors home free?

                           GM's 2010 Chevrolet Camaro

May 30, 2010: Last June the debate raged as Congress prepared to spend tens of billions bailing out General Motors from bankruptcy.

For all practical purposes, the bailout of GM set the tone for the anti-government Tea Party movement and set the stage for the wild health care riots that followed later in the summer. 

I wrote a year ago that the only way GM would make it back is if Congress kept their hands of the wheel.

So far so good.

GM made its first quarterly profit in three years as the car maker reported net income of $865 million through March. It's North American operations made a pre tax profit of $1.2 billion.

There are challenges ahead for GM though. After years of losing money, (the last time they turned a yearly profit was 2004) they have fallen behind with new products in the pipeline and need to play catch up to both Ford and Toyota.

In addition, the CFO of GM has said the company wouldn't be able to sell shares to pay off the 72% ownership between the United States and Canadian governments until the automaker had a consistent string of profitable quarters.

GM is far from home free, but at least they can see the house from here.