Romney Disses Detroit: No Longer 'Pride of the Nation'

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November 10, 2011

Troy— A day after the presidential debate at Oakland University, Michigan native Mitt Romney lamented the state of the Motor City and said he doesn't want the nation to follow Detroit's path.

"It breaks my heart to see the city the way I see it now," Romney told a rally in Troy. "I remember Detroit as the pride of the nation.

"… I see what's happened and it just tears at my heart because I know what this city can be and was."

"Someone said a long time ago: 'As General Motors goes, so goes the nation,'" Romney said. "Well I sure hope that's not the case, because General Motors went bankrupt and I don't want to see the nation follow down the path Detroit's gone down."

"The same policies you are seeing that were misapplied here in Detroit could well take this country in that kind of direction," Romney said.

read more: http://www.detnews.com/article/20111110/POLITICS03/111100503/Romney--Don%E2%80%99t-let-nation-follow-Detroit%E2%80%99s-decline

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In late 2008, Romney penned an editorial for the New York Times which carried the headline "Let Detroit go bankrupt . . ."

"It's ironic that the latest GOP debate was held in the shadow of Chrysler's World Headquarters, one of the largest office complexes in the state, when every one of the candidates on stage would have let the domestic auto industry disappear," said state Democratic Chairman Mark Brewer.

Romney and his campaign have maintained throughout that while he argued vigorously against providing the companies with taxpayer funds -- as both previous President George W. Bush and Obama did -- Obama's move to push the companies through a structured bankruptcy followed his recommended course of action.

"I care about this state and about auto industry like, I guess like no one else on this stage, having been born and raised here and watched my parents make their life here," said Romney, whose father George was a popular three-term governor of Michigan. "I was here in the 1950s and 1960s when Detroit and Michigan was the pride of the nation."

After the debate, Brewer responded: "In the domestic auto industry's darkest hour, Romney would have let Chrysler and General Motors be liquidated -- taking 1.4 million jobs with them."

http://www.freep.com/article/20111110/NEWS15/111100579/Economy-takes-center-stage-Michigan-debate


“My view with regards to the bailout was that, whether it was by President Bush or by President Obama, it was the wrong way to go,” he said, during the event at Oakland University in Rochester, Michigan.

Amid the 2008-09 credit crunch, private sector financing for such a deal wasn’t available, according to economists such as Mark Zandi of Moody’s Analytics, an adviser to 2008 Republican presidential nominee John McCain, and independent analysts such as David Cole, chairman emeritus of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Michigan.

“Without the intervention of the Bush and Obama administrations, we would have seen the liquidation of both Chrysler and probably GM,” Cole said in August. “That would have taken the whole industry down. We would have seen a disaster in terms of the job impact.”

read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-09/romney-s-auto-bailout-opposition-highlighted-in-home-state.html


In late 2008, faced with estimates that as many as 3 million jobs could be at risk, President George W. Bush’s administration extended more than $17 billion in loans from the Troubled Asset Relief Program to GM and Chrysler. Dearborn, Michigan-based Ford Motor Co. (F) didn’t need government financing, thanks to a 2006 refinancing of its debt.

In 2009, the Obama administration provided additional assistance to the two car companies, as well as their financing arms. An auto-industry task force then shepherded the companies through accelerated bankruptcies.

Almost three years later, the industry is on the mend. Auto manufacturers have added about 133,000 jobs since the two companies emerged from bankruptcy in 2009, according to the Bureau of Labor Statistics.

In addition, union contracts approved last month at GM, Ford and Chrysler promise 20,000 new jobs for at least 34 factories, with Michigan having the biggest share. Those jobs may spawn 140,000 more nationwide.

read more: http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2011-11-09/romney-s-auto-bailout-opposition-highlighted-in-home-state.html


ROMNEY: President Barack Obama "gave GM to UAW, he gave Chrysler to Fiat."

THE FACTS: That's not what happened in the bailout.

A trust owned by the United Auto Workers received a 17.5 percent ownership stake in GM to help that trust pay for its retirees' health care. That stake has declined since then, after the company went public in November 2010. The trust now owns about 10 percent of General Motors. That's much smaller than the government's stake of about 30 percent, and it doesn't support the notion that the government "gave" the company to the union.

Moreover, the union did not get free rein in return for its share. It was barred from going on strike over wage issues during recent contract talks with GM and Chrysler, as a condition of the bailouts.

Nor did Obama give Chrysler to Fiat.

The Italian automaker Fiat received an initial 20 percent stake in Chrysler as Chrysler emerged from bankruptcy in 2009 in exchange for only management expertise and technology. Since then, Fiat has paid $1.8 billion to boost its stake to 53.3 percent, including a $500 million payment to the U.S. Treasury to purchase the government's 6 percent share of the company.

read more: http://www.chicagotribune.com/news/local/chi-ap-us-republican-debate,0,3307073.story

[Angry Dragon]

1. I hear mitt coming -------- flip-flop, flip-flop

[bigtree]

2. I just hear him lying

full of shit Mitt