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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."
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He is 100% right, the Auto Companies should have had to file bankruptcy. The Companies would not have gone away as some have said. They would have had to restructure their company and make big changes. What Obama did was give a deal that helped his Union buddies and screwed the stock holders.
Hey idiot. His bailout of the auto industry was the basis for creating over 3 million jobs both union and non union. When Bush Bin Lyin, led by President Cheney and his criminal gang left office, the country was on the verge of collapse.
Life2, don't try to use facts, 90% of GOPers don't understand them.
I don't think the Pope's boy Sanitarium can win in the general election. The people do not want their country ruled by the Pope or the White House moved to the Vatican.
If Sanitarium won, the Pope's first order to him would be to pardon the countless thousands of his rapst pedophile priests that are in our jails on humanitarian grounds. The grounds are that the Pope a Dope has no priests left to get the collection pots filled every Sunday.
Vote for the real heart of the repuke party, the true family values candidates. Cain/Sandusky in 2012. Now that Sandusky is out on bail he can run for office. They should be able to get the votes of the rapist pedophile catholic priests that look up to Sandusky for guidance. And there are thousands of them.
The Governement picking winners and losers in buisness makes everyone a loser. The free market will work if government would just get out of the way.
And you think that lyin Willardo, Mexican Mormon Moron tax evader is the one to do it. Certaimnly crackpot Paul, the muslim lover would not be capable, since he thinks the guys in Guantanamo are good guys,and Nut Gingerhead, the criminal lobbyist who almost brought down the housing market and wants to spend 2 trillion for a moon colony on a dead planet with no oxygen or very little water. But yet you hear nothing about this from the 11% approved cracked teanuts in congress that he is spending too much., or Sanitarium who wants birth control outlawed so that every family can have at least 10 kids, with probably seven of the ten thrown on the street because the families can't afford them.
This group of repuke clowns are our country's worst nightmare ever.
Flip floppin, draft dodging, min taxes, Cayman and Swiss accounts, five sons none of which could take time out of their dollar focused lives to serve their Country. "I'm for the middle class." Get real Romney.
People - please take another look at Ron Paul
Its easy to be smart for Romney NOW, knowing what happened to GM and how it turned out. BUT can he look in the future and predict? Can he risking for people? Can he go against everything and everybody for people??
HE IS TOO MUCH OF ROMNEY to be OUR PRESIDENT.
Lyin Willardo, the Mexican Mormon Moron tax evader, thinks that he can fool the auto workers and their suppliers with his lies. He is going to get crushed in Michigan. The Pope's boy should trounce him.
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.
And Democrats love them because they force all their workers to give them campaign donation!
Mitt doesn't have a leg to stand on, he was quite wiling to ruin the lives of the workers and inure major profits for the venture (vulture) capitalists, he is, after all is said and done, one of them. Now he goes into his home state to face those workers and he has the gall to say he was with them. I guarantee it, that those workers don't see it that way and come voting day they will be handing Mitt his hat and telling him don't come back.
Mitt Romney you'er the "BAMA of the YEAR" go home and eat a big bowl of beans.
GM retirement fund is $22 billion sort and this would not be had they gone bankurpt. Obama who is goning to pay this one???
Why don't you trace back to see where this "shortage" came from. A lot of executives are living very well off that "shortage".
Initially, I was willing to give Romney an opportunity to convince me to vote for him. Now, in the last few weeks, I am thinking that there is nothing this man won't say or do to get elected. I am okay with changing a course of action or an opinion/stand when circumstances change or evidence indicates this should be done. But I think when it gets to the point where you do it everytime you open your mouth it is not only tiresome but shows a lack of principles. Sorry, I just can't take this guy seriously anymore. In fact he is honestly starting to scare me.
He was 100% right the governement should not be in the practice of bailing out companies. That is why we have a bankruptcy system.
That is why lyin Willardo bankupted so many companies, to help the workers. There is a dunce born every minute, and you are a classic one. Now that the two faced liar has the backing of Fox Top Trump, the bakruptcy king, they should make a great pair.
Remember, lyin Willardo would go to Trumps debate, now he loves the guy because he is backing him.
However, Trump said that if thinks lyin Willardo is going to mlose in the nomination process, Trump will become a candidate. Can't wait for the buffoon to get in.
So the bailout of A.I.G. for the tune of 800 billion by the Bush Administration was right or wrong?
If our Nation had a nickle for every time one of Flip Romney's statements was "taken out of context" we would have no national debt remaining. Let Detroit Go Bankrupt--really? Whether he thought that or not it is an awful brash statement to let anybody go bankrupt. Remember Flip, corporations are people too?
Romney's view on the bailout shouldn't surprise anyone. This is how he made millions at Bain. Let a company get near absolute death and then buy it. Slash the workforce, cut it into pieces and sell the parts to make a profit for himself and investors. He is a VULTURE that represents a threat to the American Middle Class!!!!
Bush then Obama did the patriotic thing buy saving the American auto industry and millions of manufacturing jobs, period.
exactly right. They don't want the government involved so they can buy everything cheap when they cause Great depression III. They love Great Depressions because they can buy up all the property and businesses at very little cost. This isn't capitalism. It rewards failure, whereas capitalism rewards success. Way to go Detroit. Way to go GM, Chrysler, Ford. Way to go President Obama.
"Look" in the sky, it a bird, its a plane, no its FILP FLOP MAN.
Yeah! This scumbag would have rather liquidated the compaies and laid off the workers to make a few quick million. I have never hated a political canidate more than this douchebag.
Another day of reckoning for the Weathervane. I love how he wants to badmouth the auto unions for wanting to salvage their pensions. Why should people who worked honorably for 25 or 30 years get a dime? Management didn't fund the pension appropriately and now the workers must suffer. Ah the Republican Party, the kill your pension party. Kill your social security, kill your pension, kill your medicare, and force you to work until 70. Work is good for you. Remember that, you little pawns. Unions brought you the weekend, but they are bad job killers. Republicans helped kill the defined benefit pension. (They never really enforced Erisa laws very well.) Killing pensions makes companies more competitive. However, they haven't killed golden parachutes for failed executives. CEO's and CFO's get multiple millions to fatten their nest egg even when they grossly mismanaged.
It is even worse than what people imagine. Americas pensions were doing exceedingly well until 1987 when accounting laws were rewritten allowing the executives to drain off the surpluses. Once the greedy turds started they could not stop until they had every penny of our once great pension funds in their pockets. Mittens was a leader in the great pension heist.
WELL i will say this, unions have demanded and gotten to much in consessions, this is why cars cost so much and with gas coming at 5 a gallon they are gonna be hitting rough times again and i just don't see how we have the money to bail them out again and all ready the picture is getting rocky again.
you can't pay ceo millions of dollars for letting a company go down the river and just like you can't pay a union man full wages the rest of his life and keep the price of a car in a reasonable price range, this is why GM went bankrupt as all it did was take a bump in the road to wreck the train.
they are gona have to give some more concesions in things and so forth or some maybe out of a job for a while and soon toyota will fix their problems that was falsely set up and then they gona be pounding on the door again with kia and hundya beating on it.
i have gotten where i am against unions just for this reason that prices are way to high.
you know nothing about which you are talking. The corporations have consolidated more and more power. The courts are increasingly finding for the employers. The workforce is so hungry for jobs and the employers are so chalked full of profits that the employers hold every card. They have made more and more while paying less and less and less... They have gutted what used to be the middle class and it is all the guys with whom Flip Romney yachts that got rich as balls while destroying the working class. Thank you President Obama for supporting manufacturing the Nation needed the shot in the arm.
One thing republicans can not understand is you can't unring a bell and you CAN NOT UNSAY what you SAID!!!!
They actually can, just tune into FAUX.
Wonder how all the middle class working people who owned a little piece of GM stock felt when Obama screwed them on his nationalization of GM?
This is just an extension of the liberal/progressive philosophy in which you want to live in whatever self-destructive, idiotic style you want (like GM's business model) and when you fail you don't have to face the consequences...somebody's there to bail you out, wipe your nose, give you candy and a dollar and tell you it's going to be okay.
Buying any stock in any company involves some degree of risk - the company could falter, fail to pay dividends, make marketing mistakes, loose market share, suffer bankruptcy, even fail completely. If you don't want to accept that risk, then don't buy stocks.
In the case of GM. the company faltered, made marketing mistakes, lost market share, and even went through bankruptcy. It's not surprising that GM stock lost value, those gambling on that stock took the risk and lost, and it's too late to whine and cry now. Besides, what was the alternative? GM going bankrupt and collapsing completely, and the shareholders would still have major losses.
capitalism means "off with their heads" as in capital punishment, or "capitoline" as in the capitoline hill on which the ancient Roman wealthy lived as they looked down on the slaves below. it is rather obvious which word applies to mitt head and gravel mouth.
capialism does not mean buying and selling; the word for same is "mercantalism" as in robber baron.
So true
Romney is the typical monday morning quarterback, claiming what He WOULD'VE done. Is that the same re-struturing He promoted in the Companies His Bain Capital took over that sent millions of middle class jobs oversees? This guy is such a flip flopper, you look that term up in the dictionary and POOF, His photo appears.
GM wasn't going anywhere. It could have reorganized under existing law. What Obama did was use taxpayer money to put the unions in the place of the investors.
Your spin isn't working, you want to try again?
Obama gave the order to KILL BIN LADEN! Bin Laden is dead
Bush said; "i don't care about bin laden"
Romney said " LET DETROIT GO BANKRUPT"
Thank God Obama was president. Detroit is ALIVE AND WELL. BIN LADEN IS DEAD
Romney full of @!$%#! he first advocate to let the Auto industry shut down and now want to take credit that he recommended to save the industry but would've done so a BETTER way.
I guess when making love to his wife or wives he only do it lying down because its the correct way of doing it and doing any other way would be wrong!
Romney could have cared less about all the people who would have lost their jobs at G.M. and Chrysler, I mean for goodness sakes, he's a Corporate Raider and has a pile of Money in Switzerland and the Cayman Islands.
He even Dodged the Draft in France during Vietnam! And not one of his five sons served in Iraq or Afghanistan. None of them had skin in the game or served in uniform.
None of Mitts children will ever be coming home in Body Bags, but he will gladly send other Children their.
He won't be getting this Veterans Vote!