E-mail updates
Follow on Twitter
Subscribe to RSS
Just how much of a role would the government have played in supporting Chrysler and General Motors if Mitt Romney had been president?
As First Read reported yesterday, the former Massachusetts governor has worked to couch his opposition to President Barack Obama's decision to bail out the two car companies -- a decision which Romney, who was raised in Michigan, is being forced to confront heading into the state's Feb. 28 primary.
Democrats and the Obama campaign have made a big issue of Romney's 2008 op-ed in The New York Times entitled, "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt," especially in light of the signs of encouragement in the auto industry since the bailout. He penned it just weeks after Obama secured the presidency.
Related: Obama touts manufacturing at Wisconsin plant
The piece, published as the automakers were facing a major cash crunch, called for what he dubbed a “managed bankruptcy.” He said the car companies needed to restructure their labor agreements; replace each company's management and rid them of corporate perks; and increase government spending on alternative energy and fuel economy research, which would benefit the industry indirectly.
Of direct government assistance, Romney wrote: "The federal government should provide guarantees for post-bankruptcy financing and assure car buyers that their warranties are not at risk." He stated, declaratively, “Detroit needs a turnaround, not a check.”
Since then, Romney has spoken publicly about the bailout, essentially trying to take ownership for the successes of the auto industry's turnaround while decrying Obama's management of the process. Romney argues that the administration basically ended embracing a variation of the strategy he originally advocated.
"The indisputable good news is that Chrysler and General Motors are still in business," Romney wrote Tuesday in The Detroit News. "The equally indisputable bad news is that all the defects in President Obama's management of the American economy are evident in what he did."
The separation between Romney and Obama on the issue of the bailout stems from two issues. First, Romney argues that interests of the labor unions were unfairly favored over some of GM and Chrysler's private creditors. The government-supervised bankruptcy did this, he argues, by allowing the autoworkers’ retirees program an equity stake in the restructured GM in exchange for providing financial support for the bankruptcy.
Second, Romney appears to differ with the president over the extent to which government itself should have stepped forward with money to help stave off liquidation of GM and Chrysler and provide for the restructuring process. The administration's approach did this in the case of GM by essentially establishing a new, restructured company in which the government became a majority shareholder. (Romney argued Tuesday for the government to divest itself from the company.)
Romney's position in the past has been that the private sector could have stepped forward to finance and more effectively manage the bankruptcy process -- especially in a way that would have treated private stakeholders in the companies more fairly.
The right-leaning editorial page of The Detroit News weighed in Wednesday:
But on the key question of whether the automakers could have managed themselves through a traditional bankruptcy without assistance from the government, Romney is wrong. The loans provided by Bush and then by Obama allowed the domestic auto industry to survive the darkest hour of its history and return to thriving operations today.
Critics also contend that Wall Street might not have been in the position to give that financial assistance to Detroit in 2009, as Lehman Brothers collapsed and global credit tightened.
But Romney appeared to add more uncertainty into his position surrounding the bailouts in an interview Wednesday on Detroit talk radio station WJR. Romney said that the government should have been available to step in and provide financing during a structured bankruptcy by way of a bridge loan -- the initial way in which the Bush administration propped up GM and Chrysler at the end of 2008.
Romney explained:
They needed to go through bankruptcy, and if, as part of that process, they needed financial help to get out of bankruptcy -- a bridge loan, or guarantees on sales of cars and so forth -- I said the government should be there to provide that. But the point was they took the wrong process, they wasted a lot of money, and ended up giving the companies to the UAW.
That doesn't necessarily mean that Romney would have pursued the exact path as the Obama administration for restructuring GM and Chrysler, but it does indicate some willingness for a more expansive role for the government during bankruptcy. Spokesmen for the Romney campaign didn't immediately respond to an inquiry seeking clarification.
But in addressing some of the political flak he's taken over the bailout, Romney added on WJR: "I don't imagine that anyone could think I had any interest other than to see the companies to thrive and survive, and that's why the original op-ed piece I wrote describes what I thought was the best way to get that done."
Leave a Comment:
Mitt Romney would have let the auto industry go bankrupt purchase the note for what is left then sell it for a profit and put the money in his off shore bank accounts.
You think Santorum would be better??? Santorum will bankrupt the country with all his planned wars. Romney isn't likely to bankrupt anybody.
That's funny. The repukes always lie and lose jobs for us. If you actually took the time to look at the economy since Bush Bin Lyin and his criminal gang led by President Cheney, left office you will see now miuch things have improved. If you continue to listen to Fox Lies and Eric Bowleggs and David Asswipes, you will never hear the truth. If Obama increases the number of jobs, they will say his polices are not good enough. When the employment rate falls on one weekly report, his policies are failed. You will, never hear anyting postitive about Obama from Fox Lies.
Unemployment has been dropping for the last 23 months, consumer sentiment is on the rise, corporations have more cash on hand than ever, the stock market is at 3 year highs, troops have been pulled out of Iraq and Afganistan and the approval rating of the right wing cracked teanuts in congress has dropped to a historic low 11%. So just vote them out in the next election and save the country.
And lyin Willardo, the Mexican Mormon Moron tax evader, wants to take credit for Obama's success with the auto industry bailout.
Obama DID NOT start the Auto Bailout! He just finished it! George Bush STARTED IT! This is one of the FEW things that they BOTH agree on...
http://bottomline.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/07/10342178-bush-on-auto-bailouts-id-do-it-again
Bottom Line - Bush on auto bailouts: 'I'd do it again'
bottomline.msnbc.msn.com
It has become one of the rare things that binds the two men, the controversial automotive bailout that was begun by former President George W.
I take it your family was not forced to out of their State trying to find employment without the support of U.S. troops when the government and big business was paid to send American jobs overseas. Now that is what blue collar workers call terrorism and that happened well before President Obama took office. The government is now attempting to vote down everything he attempts to do for Americans. Oh, or did you forget, this was not a color thing, I am sure that all Americans except politicians and "big" business are still struggling. President Obama has successfully been able to have some jobs returned to America, for American Citizens! Now, when you get over the political party thing and the color thing, look in your bank account and see you have. Oh and by the way, they should garnish the checks of those government officials (prior to President Obama) that misused and "Bush"wacked" a surplus of Social Security money and spent our money on what they wanted! Where is a collection agency when you need one!? Try getting social security when you become disabled, you would think it was their money!!!
Doug950479
Santorum, that MCP. He would take away birth control and women's right to vote. He is an antiquated joke. if he thinks all babies should be born, why don't people send him the babies that are product of rape, incest and the like and let him care of them.
Romney sounding like a snake saleman again...
Mitt would say his mother was a devel worshiper if he thought that would help him be the Republican candidate.
Obama offered YOUR TAXPAYER money, in the amount of a credit for $7,500 to all buyers of the electric Volt. Apparently, this was not enough. Now, Obama will give buyers a $10,000 credit. Is this how you want your tax money spent? Is this how Obama shows everyone that his bailout of the automakers and union buddies is working? It's all smoke and mirrors, folks. Everything Obama does is directed toward enticing/forcing/mandating you to accept his agenda. He has his writers cloak the truth with sugar-coated words, and he takes those words on stage and does his dance. OPEN YOUR EYES. Vote him out in 2012.
Actually, that $7,500 tax credit is from a law signed by President Bush and supported back then by Republicans. It applies to all street legal plug-in vehicles with a certain amount of battery capacity. It's not limited just to the Volt, it also applies to Tesla Motors vehicles, the Fisker Karma, Nissan Leaf, Coda, and Mitsubishi iMIEV. A smaller amount will be available for the Plug-in Prius, due to its smaller battery pack.
The reason for that tax credit is to encourage the purchase of plug-in vehicles, which will dramatically reduce use of petroleum, thus reduce oil imports and help reduce the increase in oil prices. (in case you haven't noticed, fuel prices are going up again) That is a very good thing for our country, and maybe even good in the long run for your wallet.
You can't say Goegre Bush didn't do something right!
I guess we will never know what position Romney would have taken with GM since his position keeps changing. Well, anyway, one thing you have to give him credit for is he is continuously changeable, and a relativist or situationist when it comes to decision making.
Mitt's campaign slogan ~ "Flexibility - my only firm policy." Anyone who thinks Romney gives a continental dam about anyone not in the upper echelon of socio-economic strata simply has not been paying attention.
The real truth behind the repuke radicals running for president.
The facts speak for themselves. Jesus is dead. He has been dead for over 2000 years and is not coming back, no matter how much his followers fill their pastors' collection pots to tell them otherwise. There is no proof that God was his father or that Mary was a virgin. The Shroud of Turin was a fake and there are no statues of Mary crying blood or men with wings on flying around blowing horns.
These braindeads that follow this nonsense are the same ones that vote for guys like Sanitarium, lyin Willardo, Nut Gingerhead and crackpot Paul. 500,000 of these braindead Children of the Corn are the same ones that Harold Camping, the evangelical king, got to give up their worldy possessions to follow him to meet and stay with the man in the sky. It did not work on Rapture Day Oct 21, 2011.
This prediction was all based on "biblical facts" that these Creationists believe in.
These are the Christian Taliban and their representatives that want to take over our country. It is not a matter of taxes or spending, it is a matter of these radicals trying to impose their biblical fairy tale beliefs on everyone.
Life2: Bingo.
Mr. Romney is really going through some verbal contortions on this auto bailout thing. Makes me want some pretzels.
winemaker you go..... I back President Obama for what he did for the Auto Industry however i do not back him for screwing the investors and creditors and letting the union not only stay active but to gain quite a bit of control of the company...... If you are going to screw investors & creditors then you should also screw the unions..... After the UNION demands combined with the piss poor management to allow them did them in.....
By favoring the Unions...you do realize that actually means...letting the workers keep their pensions. What a fiend!
Romney is actually to be commended--I don't think anyone else has ever managed to make me speechless before....he's starting to make George W Bush look smart...who'd have thunk it!!!
Obama/Biden!!!!!
Flip, flop, flip, flop, flip....Hard to watch.
Isn't this just a LITTLE BIT hypothetical? What would he have done? Not what he did. Not what he is going to do. If we had a time machine, maybe we could answer that one for ya.
Liberal suck facing........NASTY......Get a room!
Where are all the tea-publicans? There is no complaining and collapsing comments from the left?
What a weasel!
We are starting to see the results of the Chrysler employees that were caught on camera drinking and smoking dope at lunch. JD Powers rated Jeep , Dodge, and Chrysler as the least dependable cars in the market. Chevrolet rated 18. They should have let them all go under. Now were stuck with them and the 22 billion dollars they owe us. What A peach!
Yeah! What a bunch of leeching slugs. But ~ ~ ~ ~ Chrysler has already paid back its loan - in full - and GM is on schedule to make full restitution for the billions made available through the bailout. Some of the less than honest would have us believe that the bailout funds were a gift ~ a grant ~ not subject to repayment. They are the same a$$holes would would try to sell the story that the bailouts were bad decisions and did no good whatsoever. The real burr under these peoples' blanket is that the roughly two-million whose jobs were saved will probably reward the Democratic president with their vote in November. How shameful.
Why not just let the Chairman of the UAW run the company, since he wants to. Let James Hoffa, JR. run Government Motors and then when its broke then let the goood damn company and people eat sheet of the bosses table. I'm a Chevy man all my life, but won't ever buy a GM or Chrysler product made after 2009. I'll buy Ford. Just traded my 2001 Chevy Tahoe for a 2005 Jeep, which I don't like, so going to look at the Ford Trucks. Freeeek Obozo, GM, the UAW and all you liberal idiots as we go the way of Europe. I agree with Romney, but I'd fire the damn GM bosses and salary also and I'm an engineer and almost went to work for GM until I saw how frickin lazy everyone was in the damn plant back in 78. When new vehicles are $40K on a $40k salary, no on but the internet geniuses can afford anything. The Chevy Volt is another one of Obozo's idiotic programs and Solyndra. God help us
Your are in line for a Darwin Award if you make your purchasing decisions based on your dislike for Obama.
Romney should be offended at the type of "support" he's getting. Grover Norquist at CPAC on Romney:
MI is a very practical minded state overall. I don't think they'd support Romney because he's a puppet, especially if they think Norquist is the puppet master.
So that's it then. They've stopped thinking entirely. It begs the question, assuming they got someone to sign that stuff, what next? I don't think there's any sign they have a clue.
They don't. And basically what they're saying is they want to make 2 branches of gov't.
Bear-Down, exactly right. Let's leave it to the Congress with it's 11% favorable rating to lead. That'll go over like a lead balloon.
What a weasel!
This guy is a joke. I love how people keep voting for this guy... OBAMA 2012 baby!! can't wait
It's not looking good for the mittster...no one but wall street likes him....
Romney. The Great Communicator. NOT!
Let's see the average voter sort this out. Most won't get past "Let Detroit go bankrupt."
The Auto Industry Bailout SHARPLY CONTRASTS the players in this Debate---WHICH SIDE do you support ? Ultra-Rich politicans/Investors OR the working Middle Class ? I WORK for a living for a Auto suppier-You can guess which side i'm on !!!
The only reason Mitt and the republicans hate unions is because of the collectively bargained pension contracts they could not break. Every other pension in America was stolen during1990-2005 and put into the pockets of the rich...every pension was stolen except the unions because they had collective contracts. If you want to understand how the rich got rich...look at the inverse that happened to the retired folk during this time period. The retired workers lost their pensions and health care as the rich Mitt's got richer than heck.
The republicans hate unions because they cannot steal from them.