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Detroit Free PressObama turned down Bush proposal on autos
BY JUSTIN HYDE • FREE PRESS WASHINGTON STAFF • JUNE 8, 2009
President Barack Obama's transition team turned down a pitch last November from Bush administration officials to join forces in setting conditions on GM and Chrysler in return for money to survive.
The disclosure Sunday by a former top economic aide to President Bush came after repeated criticism from the Obama team that the Bush White House had simply dumped billions of dollars into GM and Chrysler that would have to be written off as a loss because of a lack of oversight.
“We are only in this situation because somebody else kicked the can down the road, and that’s really an understatement,” said Austan Goolsbee, a member of Obama’s Council of Economic Advisers, on “Fox News Sunday.”
“When George Bush put money into General Motors, almost explicitly with the purpose, how many dollars do they need to stay alive until January 20th, 2009? There was no commitment to restructuring, to making these viable enterprises of any kind.”Read more:
http://www.freep.com/article/20090608/BUSINESS01/90608039/Obama+turned+down+Bush+proposal+on+autos