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ProSense

(116,464 posts)
Tue May 8, 2012, 09:11 AM May 2012

Mitt Romney wants a round of applause for saving the auto industry (updated)

Last edited Tue May 8, 2012, 09:47 AM - Edit history (1)

Mitt Romney wants a round of applause for saving the auto industry

by Jed Lewison

Get a load of this:

Campaigning in the backyard of America's auto industry, Mitt Romney re-ignited the bailout debate by suggesting he deserves "a lot of credit" for the recent successes of the nation's largest car companies.

That claims comes in spite of his stance that Detroit should have been allowed to go bankrupt.

Okay, pick your jaw back up off the floor ... but get ready to lose it once again:

"I pushed the idea of a managed bankruptcy, and finally when that was done, and help was given, the companies got back on their feet," Romney said in an interview inside a Cleveland-area auto parts maker. "So, I'll take a lot of credit for the fact that this industry has come back."

This is pure, unadulterated bullshit. Romney repeatedly opposed the emergency loans (aka, "bailouts&quot that prevented the collapse of the American auto industry in late 2008 and early 2009 and he repeatedly criticized the way in which the Obama administration used managed bankruptcy to restructure GM and Chrysler.
Here's Mitt Romney in March of 2009 on the emergency loans issued by President Bush at the request of then President-elect Obama:

Bailout of enterprises that are in trouble, that's not the right way to go. I know President Bush started it with the auto industry. I thought it was a mistake.

That statement is an emphatic reminder that Romney opposed the emergency bailout loans that came before the managed bankruptcies of Chrysler and GM. His plan was to simply let Detroit go bankrupt. If the government stepped in to help the companies before their bankruptcy, he said, "you can kiss Detroit goodbye."

- more -

http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/05/08/1089675/-Mitt-Romney-wants-a-round-of-applause-for-saving-the-auto-industry


President Obama's rescue of the auto industry is a big problem for Republicans
http://www.democraticunderground.com/1002622822

Updated to add:

<...>

Since penning a 2008 op-ed calling for letting Detroit go bankrupt, Romney has desperately tried to spin the eventual auto rescue as his idea, ignoring that he doubled down on his original op-ed by writing in February, “The president tells us that without his intervention things in Detroit would be worse. I believe that without his intervention things there would be better.”

Romney’s plan for a bankruptcy devoid of government financing has been blasted by auto industry insiders and reporters as “truly reckless, detached from reality, and dishonest.” “Romney’s take just doesn’t square with the facts as I lived them,” said Yahoo! Autos reporter Justin Hyde. The Economist wrote that Romney “conveniently ignores” history with his position on the rescue.

Even Republicans who have endorsed Romney disagree with his take on the auto rescue. “There was no one that could have picked up those pieces other than the federal government,” said Rep. Fred Upton (R-MI). But Romney keeps trying to spin the rescue as a success for himself, rather than a case in which he got the policy exactly wrong.

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/05/08/479889/romney-credit-auto-industry/


36 replies = new reply since forum marked as read
Highlight: NoneDon't highlight anything 5 newestHighlight 5 most recent replies
Mitt Romney wants a round of applause for saving the auto industry (updated) (Original Post) ProSense May 2012 OP
Mitt Romney: "Obama can't run on his record, because I'm going to run on his record!" JoePhilly May 2012 #1
More like he is making up his record as the campaign goes along. geckosfeet May 2012 #3
"Which I'm also against! Doubleplus good!" Arkana May 2012 #6
Its just too funny. JoePhilly May 2012 #25
LOL Cosmocat May 2012 #26
Agree ... he'll say anything now, no matter how ridiculous it sounds. JoePhilly May 2012 #31
aargh. that lying liar is a psycho. cali May 2012 #2
Romney's the slimiest politician I've ever seen catbyte May 2012 #4
Flip flopper? liberalmuse May 2012 #5
Here's your applause Mitt hobbit709 May 2012 #7
He also gets no credit for killing bin Laden. Courtesy Flush May 2012 #8
John McCain's secret plan to nab OBL and Romney's secret plan to save the US auto industry ... Princess Turandot May 2012 #9
Am sure that at one time Mittens was a normal rich man. Now he is gotten mixed up southernyankeebelle May 2012 #10
People in hell want ice water, Willard. hifiguy May 2012 #11
He just says anything!!! Generic Other May 2012 #12
His alternate universe is a scary place. marmar May 2012 #13
He should be LAUGHED at.. annabanana May 2012 #14
OBL is dead, Detroit is alive, and Romney is jealous aint_no_life_nowhere May 2012 #15
Detroit is on the verge of bankruptcy, actually. nt Romulox May 2012 #16
Detroit as a symbol of the auto industry aint_no_life_nowhere May 2012 #17
No. Detroit is an *actual city* of almost a million people. It's teetering right now. nt Romulox May 2012 #21
Merci, mais je n'ai pas le temps pour enculer les mouches aint_no_life_nowhere May 2012 #24
I'll dedicate Kane's applause to him fishwax May 2012 #18
I guess Romney doesn't really believe in Mormonism SunSeeker May 2012 #19
Actual Mormons believe you can lie if it furthers the churchs cause Muskypundit May 2012 #35
I'll give you a hand Mitt... Scuba May 2012 #20
I think he also claims to have slept with Morgan Fairchild... SidDithers May 2012 #22
...who he's seen without her magic underwear. Gidney N Cloyd May 2012 #28
Well played, sir. Well played... SidDithers May 2012 #34
It's OBVIOUS there is something FUNDAMENTALLY wrong with America obxhead May 2012 #23
Romney wanted a complete bankruptcy that included closing plants. JohnnyRingo May 2012 #27
I've given up on hoping that America recognizes a liar when they see one. Bake May 2012 #29
Rethuglicans always say shit like this that contradicts their actual deeds. lpbk2713 May 2012 #30
UAW response 1gobluedem May 2012 #32
I just posted your title on my facebook with this picture > > lamp_shade May 2012 #33
Dkos' title, but ProSense May 2012 #36

geckosfeet

(9,644 posts)
3. More like he is making up his record as the campaign goes along.
Tue May 8, 2012, 09:21 AM
May 2012

Fabrications and outright lies.

I would expect nothing less from this sniveling snake in the grass republican't.

Cosmocat

(14,567 posts)
26. LOL
Tue May 8, 2012, 12:14 PM
May 2012

Nice line - he has definitely morphed from acting like a hard right lunatic to now trying to be what BO is ...

There was something about him that was vaguely respectable at one point, but he has fallen into the craven drive to be president to a point where he will say ANYTHING, literally, with no regard to reality or what he has said in the past.

catbyte

(34,423 posts)
4. Romney's the slimiest politician I've ever seen
Tue May 8, 2012, 09:25 AM
May 2012

And I was i high school when Nixon was president. Romney makes my skin crawl. That creepy "laugh" of his is absolutely unbearable.

liberalmuse

(18,672 posts)
5. Flip flopper?
Tue May 8, 2012, 09:35 AM
May 2012

This guy is a belly flopper. He's taking play by play right out of J. Goebbel's handbook, because truth be told, his supporters are so feeble-minded that they will actually believe him. Unfortunately for him, his supporters were against the auto industry bailout, LOL.

Princess Turandot

(4,787 posts)
9. John McCain's secret plan to nab OBL and Romney's secret plan to save the US auto industry ...
Tue May 8, 2012, 09:54 AM
May 2012

apparently were the same: Elect Barack Obama!

"You saved the auto-industry, Mitt? You voted for Mr. Obama?"

 

southernyankeebelle

(11,304 posts)
10. Am sure that at one time Mittens was a normal rich man. Now he is gotten mixed up
Tue May 8, 2012, 10:02 AM
May 2012

with tea party and he is riding the crazy train. Geezzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzzz

 

hifiguy

(33,688 posts)
11. People in hell want ice water, Willard.
Tue May 8, 2012, 10:04 AM
May 2012

Ain't happenin for you either. This has to be one of the great stories in the annals of chutzpah, right up there with the guy who murdered his parents and then threw himself on the mercy of the court "because I'm an orphan, your honor!"

annabanana

(52,791 posts)
14. He should be LAUGHED at..
Tue May 8, 2012, 10:21 AM
May 2012

Every time he makes one of the cockamamie statements he should be laughed right out of the hall. Scornful guffaws should meet his every ridiculous utterance. He is a buffoon.

aint_no_life_nowhere

(21,925 posts)
15. OBL is dead, Detroit is alive, and Romney is jealous
Tue May 8, 2012, 10:35 AM
May 2012

He assures us he would have gotten OBL, too, as a routine matter of course. Now he's concocted a fiction whereby he's the one who saved the U.S. auto industry. Rove's theory of picking your opponent's strengths in their record and going after those strengths has taken on a new twist: appropriating the strengths in your opponent's record as your own.

SunSeeker

(51,630 posts)
19. I guess Romney doesn't really believe in Mormonism
Tue May 8, 2012, 11:11 AM
May 2012

Any Mormons out there correct me if I'm wrong, but as I understand it, lying is just as much of a sin in the Mormon religion as in Chritianity. So if he feels so free to lie, I guess he doesn't really believe in what his religion teaches him. I could say that about a LOT of Christians as well.

Muskypundit

(717 posts)
35. Actual Mormons believe you can lie if it furthers the churchs cause
Tue May 8, 2012, 10:45 PM
May 2012

Getting elected would probably be furthering the Mormon church.

 

obxhead

(8,434 posts)
23. It's OBVIOUS there is something FUNDAMENTALLY wrong with America
Tue May 8, 2012, 11:25 AM
May 2012

when Romney is one of 2 choices for POTUS.

and that's all I have to say about that!

JohnnyRingo

(18,638 posts)
27. Romney wanted a complete bankruptcy that included closing plants.
Tue May 8, 2012, 12:30 PM
May 2012

He's lying when he claims he was in favor of a "managed bankruptcy".

The reason he was against the loan was so the UAW contracts would be shredded in a complete failure and piecemeal resale of the industry. He (and others) claimed there were investors out there that would restart the car companies after they got rid of "legacy costs". They claimed the car plants could be sold off individually.

The pension check that allowed me to retire after 30 years at GM is the "legacy cost" Mitt Romney saw as a drain on the industry. In the weeks before and after the election I was frantically exploring my options in the job market in case I needed to start a new career (It turns out welfare is no longer an option in Ohio).

My chances were just as bleak as GM finding the money to keep building cars. GM couldn't even find a buyer for the Hummer brand in the sickened Bush economy, let alone the entire company.

Thank you President Obama for saving the pension check that I worked half my life for, and fuck you Mitt romney for trying so desparately to rob me of it. I have a personal reason to volunteer for Team Obama this year.

We in the UAW have not forgotten.

Bake

(21,977 posts)
29. I've given up on hoping that America recognizes a liar when they see one.
Tue May 8, 2012, 12:37 PM
May 2012

All they see is ideology. We're screwed, unless there's more of us than there are of them.

Bake

lpbk2713

(42,766 posts)
30. Rethuglicans always say shit like this that contradicts their actual deeds.
Tue May 8, 2012, 12:41 PM
May 2012



It's as if they think no one is paying attention. Apparently Mittens is of the opinion that the entire
electorate is as willfully ignorant as the pathetic mouth breathers he meets at the various GOP
gatherings he attends and he assumes they will all fall for any line of bullshit he wants to deliver.

1gobluedem

(6,664 posts)
32. UAW response
Tue May 8, 2012, 01:00 PM
May 2012
For immediate release: May 8, 2012


Statement by UAW President Bob King on Mitt Romney and the recovery of the domestic auto industry


The Republican presidential candidate, Mitt Romney, is taking credit for the success of the American auto industry, yet he opposed federal loans for U.S. automakers - loans that ultimately saved more than a million American jobs - in a 2009 New York Times editorial, "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt."


Romney has been vocally opposed to the auto loans for the past 3 years. He criticized President Obama as recently as February, 2012 in his opinion article in the Detroit News saying, "The president tells us that without his intervention things in Detroit would be worse. I believe that without his intervention things there would be better." But now he's claiming credit for President Obama's intervention to save the industry.

President Obama and Democrats in Congress provided emergency bridge loans for an auto industry that was a casualty of a collapsed credit market, when no private investors or companies would provide financing.


The loans - which were predicated on painful sacrifices by workers, management and other stakeholders - enabled the companies to return quickly to profitability and repay the loans years ahead of schedule.
Moreover, the industry has added more than 200,000 jobs in the last few years and 2011 was the strongest year of industry job growth since 1994. None of this would have happened if Romney had been the one making the decisions.


The successful recovery of the American auto industry is a great national success story that most Americans are very proud of. It's an example of how business, labor and the government can work together to find solutions to some of the nation's most difficult problems. Mitt Romney's values of profits-over-people are wrong for Michigan, wrong for workers and wrong for all Americans who value hard work, shared sacrifice and shared prosperity.
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