One of the campaign planks the Republican Party has been standing on is that President Obama's economic polices are a disaster, that he doesn't understand business, and that he's doing more harm than good.An example of this is the bailout of the US automotive industry. Key Republicans told us that this was a terrible plan, one that might well end capitalism as we know it.
In case you've forgotten their opinions at the time, ThinkProgress gathered a number of quotes from GOP leaders on the issue; here's a sample:
- Rep. John Boehner (R-OH): “Does anyone really believe that politicians and bureaucrats in Washington can successfully steer a multi-national corporation to economic viability?”
- Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC): “Now the government has forced taxpayers to buy these failing companies without any plausible plan for profitability. Does anyone think the same government that plans to double the national debt in five years will turn GM around in the same time?”
- Rep. Trent Franks (R-AZ): When government gets involved in a company, “the disaster that follows is predictable.”
Read that bit again: "its demise will be virtually guaranteed." Strong words. But as the GOP will tell you, Romney is an expert in business. So he should know, right?"If General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye. It won't go overnight, but its demise will be virtually guaranteed."
And lo, four years later, his prophecy is born out...
GM adds third shift at Texas plant, 800 jobs
General Motors announced plans Friday to add a third shift at its SUV plant in Arlington, Texas, as the company continues to ramp up production after deep cuts during the financial crisis.
The additional shift will keep the facility running around the clock, and will generate roughly 800 additional jobs...
Now, with auto demand coming back, "lots of companies across the board are adding shifts and adding third shifts," Dziczek said.
-- CNN Money, June 22, 2012
I wonder what could be driving demand? Maybe that's in the headlines, too -
Gas prices drop 14 cents in two weeksGas prices are down. But according to "experienced businessman" Mitt Romney, Obama's been dead set on making gasoline more expensive:
Gasoline prices have fallen rapidly, dropping 48.9 cents from a high of $3.967 on April 6, survey editor Trilby Lundberg said on Sunday.
Last week Mitt Romney told Fox News that Obama "has done everything in his power to make it harder for us to get oil and natural gas in this country, driving up the price of those commodities in the case of gasoline."
That's two strikes for Mitt. I guess that magic underwear doesn't make him a prophet.
Of course, he's not as wrong as Newt Gingrich was:
Of course, the truth is that the President of the United States has very little ability to affect the price of gasoline, as reported by Fox News in 2008."...the American people will know the President is still committed to his radical ideology, which wants to artificially raise the cost of energy."-- TIME, March 20, 2012
The GOP has a history of being wrong about gasoline prices and the automotive industry. While it's important to recognize that the GOP was wrong on this issue, we must also realize that had we followed their advice, it would have cost this country tens of thousands of jobs.
According to the Center for Automotive Research, “if the government had not invested in the automotive industry, up to 80,000 automotive jobs would have been lost, and General Motors alone would have lost one million units of sales in 2009. Once Chrysler and GM emerged from their ‘orderly’ bankruptcies, the growth of automotive sector employment has been strong, with 52,900 workers added since July 2009. Had GM and Chrysler not successfully emerged, those jobs would have been permanently lost.”
Had the GOP had its way, we'd have lost all those jobs, the sales, and manufacturing capacity. Again and again, the GOP keeps claiming that it knows better than everyone else, and and time and time again, events prove that they are decisively wrong.
Facts schmacts. At least Mittney isn't covering up his socialist Muslim roots. And lots of us are still waiting to see BHO's certificate -- did you think we'd just go away quietly?
ReplyDeleteOh, I covered that:
ReplyDeletehttp://manormaniac.blogspot.com/2012/02/birthers-redux-three-strikes.html
The Auto Industry may be succeeding but at what cost. Government bail outs are paid by the American people. The Government has no money of it's own. Capitalism is based on the strongest survive. The Auto Industry should have been left to its own. If they made it as Ford did great, if not then someone else would have come along and taken over. It would not have been fast nor would it have been fun, however that's how this country has functioned and succeeded for years. Supply and demand. Those of us in the middle class are being lost thanks to the current governments desire to "save" everyone from themselves. I belive both sides are publishing fairy tales to reach out to those on either extreme. Those of us in the middle will be the ones paying and no one cares.
ReplyDeleteI guess you're sticking with anonymous because you don't want anyone to know what an idiot you are; letting the auto industry collapse would have resulted in a mess that would make the Great Depression look like a grange fair in comparison.
ReplyDeleteWe in the middle class are "being lost" thanks to a number of factors, few of which have anything to do with "the current government" or its "desire to save everyone" and everything to do with being raped and pillaged by the GOP's carefully orchestrated campaign to increase profits for the richest Americans at the expense of the rest of us.