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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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Romney is so far out to lunch that even Meals-on-Wheels couldn't find him. He is so busy pandering to the ultra-right and trashing anything Obama has done that he has escaped gravity and reality and gone into a sub-orbital flight.
Obama is by no means perfect and I have issues with some of his policies. That said I can not imagine anyone selecting any of the Republican candidates to replace Obama as our president.
I will take "less than perfect" anytime over "out to lunch and out of touch"
The Republicans keep getting themselves into deeper doodoo... Mitt is not Fitt to be President.... The bailout worked, just like Carter's bailout of Chrysler worked in 1980 before Ronnie took over. The treasury made $350Million on the Chrysler bailout after Lee Iacocca repaid the loans in 1983.... Reagan did bailout a big bank in Chicago that cost a fortune in 1984 and of course Bush 1 bailed out the Savings and Loan debacle in 1989, which didn't work well except to pad the pockets of bankers.... Not all bailouts are right, but Bush/Obama's was right on the money.... Sorry Mitt, you ain't fit to be dog catcher...
"I was for Obamacare before I was against it"
"I was for amnesty for illegal immigrants before I was against it"
"I was for abortion before I was against it"
"I was for bailing out Wall Street before I was against it"
And now "I was for bailing out the auto industry before I was against it"
Anyone keeping count on how many issues Romney have flip-flopped on since the GOP primaries had started? The way things are going now, he'd probably renounce Mormonism and become a devout Evangelist just to get the conservative vote!
Hard for me to believe that Mitt can do any better than Obama and I'm not a fan of Obama. We have no one that we can count on anymore. No one to vote for that is worth what it takes to run the United States of America. Those who might have what it takes stay away from it. The reason that those who want in office now is to get what they can on the side and the very very nice retirement packages for just one term in office. Now while everyone complains about the auto workers and what they get...well they are not getting waht they use to but the CEO's are!! Rather than complain about the auto workers EVERYONE needs to complain about the gov't and what they take and give away to the rest of the world.
Ford voted for the bailout because they needed the supply vendors to stay alive so THEY could live. GM and Chrysler go down and Ford follows them shortly after.
Good point, one I didn't follow all the way!!
On what planet?
This article is very good. I listened last year to a retired GM manager explaining how he lost over $500K in his retirement fund when the unions took over using funds to pay $72/hour to laid off workers. At 73 years old, his is a true hardship case caused by the Obama bailout of the auto industry.
bet you the rest of the millions in his account made him a little more comfortable.
That isn't true!! There is no way that story can be true!!
Manager retirement funds did loose out but it had nothing to do with the unions. Check out the executive golden parachutes to see where his pension funds went.
The executives went after the salaried retirees pensions first because they were not protected with decent contracts.
You all are talking about the CEO and the top executives. His position was found far less on down the food chain.
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.
The funny thing here is all we hear from the Right is that they want to set up things so that people can be in control of their lives and business. Here is a case where the people working those jobs (ie: unions) were given the chance to invest in their futures and make or break it. They MADE it. But Mittens said that Wall Street should be given the chance first to pick the bones and the hell with the unions (people). It is always the unions but never the private side (Wall Street).
If people are just too dumb to see this, then the country is going down the tubes not because of gay marriage, abortion, birth control, teacher's salaries, it is going down because too many are too freaking dumb to put real facts in front of their religious beliefs and the fear of progress in this country.
Dingell calls Romney foe of auto industry
Detroit — Rep. John Dingell, D-Dearborn, painted Republican presidential hopeful Mitt Romney as a foe of the domestic auto industry who liked to fire workers while unveiling a Democratic National Committee-produced video here at a Thursday press conference.
Romney, who worked at Boston venture capital firm Bain Capital before becoming governor of Massachusetts, ignited criticism in Michigan in 2008 when he wrote a New York Times commentary under the headline "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt."
Romney argued that General Motors Corp. and Chrysler Group might have to go through a managed bankruptcy with financing from the government.
The Obama administration required that GM and Chrysler go through managed bankruptcies with government aid but forced company bond holders to take a small fraction of the value of their bonds as compensation and gave the United Auto Workers large stakes in both automakers.
"He was against the automotive rescue every step of the way," Dingell said. "He does not understand what the president did or why he did it."
"Let Detroit go bankrupt is what he said and that he liked firing people," he said.
Dingell added that Romney's experience founding and leading Bain Capital "shows us that his goal was to make money for his investors while giving out pink slips."
In an apparent reference to a Wall Street Journal story this month, the DNC video said 20 percent of the companies that Bain invested in during the Romney era either filed for bankruptcy or closed.
Bain Capital told the Journal that its survey uses a "fundamentally flawed methodology that unfairly assigns responsibility to us for many events that occurred in companies when we did not own or control them, and disregards dozens of successful venture capital investments."
Dingell was joined at the press conference in the UAW's Ford building by three union auto workers who said they wouldn't have jobs if not for the Obama administration's support.
Romney "just shows he lacks the compassion that's part of the job of being a leader," said Vince Precopio, a member of UAW Local 372 in Trenton.
all the repubs on here saying the companies should have been allowed to fail are crazy and their party is hypocritical. millions of jobs were saved. if you are against this then you should be against farm and oil subsidies. i so sick and tire of the GOP picking and choosing industries which they love or hate. they always hate the workers. romney says the workers were favored. of course they were. they should have been. gm collapses they are the ones who suffer the most. the investors arent workers most of the time they have money to invest and they just move on. the workers all lose their jobs and it destroys the community. if you are ever in Pittsburgh check out braddock. the steel mills left and the town is pitiful. thats what happens when profits for the rich are more important than jobs staying here.
Certi-fit auto parts is a business that is own by the Mormon church. However, in order to hold a management position you have to join the church. Although they do provide go-for jobs for the little people. Google the locations retail sale all over United States, manufacturing all over Mexico and South America. This might explain while he made the comment "let the auto industry go broke".
Home office Salt Lake City Utah
Romney hates organized labor but who doesn't in the GOP? He would have loved to push the button that would of demolished GM & Chrysler with organized labor. Then he could have given his like-minded friends & associates (scrapped-out) bargain investments to make more multimillion dollar profits overnight. The UAW would have been eliminated. Union workers would have lost their jobs, & anyone left working in manufacturing & assembly as well as any new hires in the future would be working for half the wage, without medical benefits or a possible retirement pension. And for Romney, it's O.K. for CEO's and the like to make what they make and they are justified to walk away from the company(even when it loses money) with huge severance packages to help them make it through their retirement. Poor babies!
Truly a sad commentary on our political system.
Here is a nationally viable candidate who, on order to win the nomination, has to make statements to please a small element, which he will then have to refute to win the general election.
As a reward, he will be attacked for plip-flopping. Meanwhile the certain candidate from the other side is flip-flopping his way through birthcontrol.
If we could only accept candidates for having principles, and sometimes different, but valid, views from our own, maybe things would be different.
All politcians are guilty of changing their views pr positions on a specific issue once in a while and there's nothing wrong with that. It tells me that the there is at least some open-mindedness to change based on newer information. However, I don't think I have EVER seen someone flip on the issues as much as Mitt. WOW!
oskar-1391552
Ford did receive a loan, Ford did receive $5.9 billion in government loans in 2009 to retool its manufacturing plants to produce more fuel-efficient carsthey borrowed on the Ford Brand. According to the New York Times,Ford CEO Alan Mulally decided to mortgage his company’s assets for a $23.6 billion private loan
Romney would have sold off the auto industry, piece by piece, as thats what vulture capitalists do. Like his record shows over and over.
He has cannibalized numerous businesses, and left how many towns without the industry that sustained them? More that a few... If hes elected he'll do the same with all of America. You will be cannibalized and sold.
The auto industries recovery and success is a perfect example of what investing in America, and its work force can accomplish. The right would have let it die, and there would be a couple million more unemployed. To them, people are expendable. The economy is expendable. The country is expendable. Because these people hold no loyalty to anyone.
Your absolutely right !
I agree. Vulture Capitalism for sure and that's all Romney knows.
Question: According to Mitt Romney, he is a ___________.
1. conservative
2. progressive
3. moderate
4. severe conservative
5. all of the above
Hmm Romney has a problem with retired workers getting the benefits promised and a auto bailout yet notice how quiet he is when it comes to the wall street bailout that benefited his buddies there ?
It just illustrates what I've known for a long time about Romney, help the rich get richer and the poor poorer.
Romney=bankruptcy! This guy is a flipity floper if ever there was one! Did anyone else get confused by his many flips and flops in this article alone? OMG!!! America is in big trouble, and the only way out, is for ALL of us to stand up and be counted. We absolutely need to fire everyone on the hill, or involved in taking bribes for their vote. No more! I have had it with lying politicians telling me that everything is fine. IT'S NOT FINE!!! Our economy sucks, and it will keep getting worse. Not one of those rich bastards in Washington gives a fart for you or me. Not one! We, as AMERICANS, must take our government back. Now. Before it gets any worse. I cannot afford to pay $4.00 for gas. I cannot afford to pay $3.36 for a gallon of milk. Come on people, we have been sold down the river, and they wont stop. We have to stop them ourselves. I sure hope you will all help me? Vote them all out!
Outing Willardo:
What a combination. The Evil Mexican Mormon Moron Tax Evading anti-Christ Cultist
(according to Groper Nutquist and his priests) backed by Bankruptcy King Fox
Top. That is one step better, however, than Herman (9Kampf) Cain being backed by
Jerry Sandusky.
Amazing. Lyin Willardo, the two faced repuke that would not go to Trump's
debate now is in love with the guy because he is endorsing him.
I want lyin Willardo to produce his birth certficate, long form only and the last 5 years of
his tax returns, so we can see how much in taxes he evaded by using Swiss and
Cayman Island bank accounts.
If Willard's name on his birth certficate says Willardo (the lyin cabellero) then you know something may be wrong. There are rumors going around that someone saw lyin Willard as an infant in a stroller in Tijuana with a bottle of Corona Light in his hand.
Dump the radical right wing cracked teanuts in Congress. The 13, now 11
percenters, as of today's latest poll, are worthless dunces
Aside from the industry being supported, which we have seen evidence of other governments support their industry (e.g. Japan, China, South Korea), there is still a $14 billion (?) hole in the "bailout" and I am wondering if that is going to be paid back? In essence, the bailout is roughly $45/person in the US or about $180 for a family of 4. The TARP fund is short $29-$51 billion depending on stock valuations for AIG. So the banks that got $700 billion still owe more and would not have been able to help the auto industry in the first place. What a mess...
I don't blame black people for voting for obama, it's the stupid white people that need to wake up dummy.
Look in the mirror DUMMY
This is the problem with politics and politicians. Romney was wrong and he should just man up and own it.
What a dumb as.....Willard will never beat Obama with that ridiculous double-talk.
i personally wouldn't give you two cents for what ever he says as he is just out of touch with most americans and he will lie just like the rest will and if caught will try to make you think crap don't stink. he just wants to get elected and is desperate for that and i usualy vote across both lines choosing the man instead of the party but i do have to say this i haven't seen the 1st republician and i really don't know if obama can see past his master who is pulling his strings
First of all, Michigan's economy has not rebounded. Around the auto plants, maybe but that is due to the Federal Welfare Program called a "bailout". This bought Obama many votes and with the welfare program continuing, it will give him more votes. The unions are prostitutes to the Democratic Party, plain and simple. You now have an auto industry that is dependent on the Federal Government's taxpayer money to stay afloat.
Second, until you see the Food Stamps numbers drop significantly, the economy will remain a failed policy by the Obama Regime. Welfare is here to stay under the Obama Regime, higher taxes are on the way, and more debt will be added every year and China will own the United States in 2 years. We are in a downward spiral contrary to what the mainstream media is reporting. Think I am kidding, just look at the numbers. Watch the price of gasoline and next winter plan on paying through the nose for natural gas. Electricity won't be cheap either. This is just the start of real trouble for America under Obama. Please run the real numbers for unemployment, food stamp recipients, failed green projects that cost the taxpayers billions.
We need real leaders in Washington, not a Community Organizer who is in over his head and doesn't have a clue.
R U SERIOUS? U dont really think like a moron do u? Oh, i guess u do. STHUp!
Does anybody really take this clown serious?
Unfortunately some people do. And the Super PAC is designed for lying, cheating & deceiving in massive doses in the hope they can fool or brainwash enough voters to win an election.
Appears Mitt has a slim chance of winning MI. When his tax proposals come up, chances will be nil.
Aside: I was raised in Detroit, about two miles from the plant Romney Sr. headed as CEO. Early on, this company made Kelvinator products, then forayed into the auto business with, first with Nash. Eventually became American Motors (high point: the AMC; low point: the Gremlin). It eventually went out of business and Dad ran for governor. Failed businessman to politician. Seems Mitt is, in some respects, following in Dad's footsteps.
And, lest we forget, Mitt DID NOT come from a working-class family; he had a very privileged upbringing. Hey, Mitt, where DID you go to highschool? And you lived in, where was that, Bloomfield Hills . . . or was it Grosse Pointe?