Showing posts with label auto industry. Show all posts
Showing posts with label auto industry. Show all posts
Friday, February 24, 2012
Tuesday, February 21, 2012
INFOGRAPHIC: Why We Should Be Glad We Didn’t ‘Let Detroit Go Bankrupt’
“If General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye,” said Mitt Romney in his 2008 op-ed for the New York Times that was entitled “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt.” Of course, General Motors and Chrysler were rescued by the federal government, and as a result, the US auto industry is surging just a few years later.
General Motors recorded its highest ever profit in 2011 and regained the title of world’s largest automaker from Toyota, while Chrysler returned to profitability for the first time in more than a decade.
Amazingly, just last week Romney defended his demonstrably false statements about the auto rescue, and claimed that it was “crony capitalism on a grand scale.” “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 said.
But take a look at how the government’s intervention in the auto industry has saved Detroit from the brink of collapse:
(Click the image below for full-screen version.)
Tuesday, February 14, 2012
Thursday, January 05, 2012
Let Detroit Go Bankrupt? As Big 3 Sales Increase, Will Mitt Keep Rooting for Detroit to Fail?
From Michigan Democratic Party:
Lansing, MI – With reports today once again showing increased sales for Ford, General Motors, and Chrysler, Michigan Democratic Party Chair Mark Brewer today called on outsourcing specialist Mitt Romney to stop rooting for the American automotive industry to fail.
“When the Wall Street meltdown pushed our auto industry to the brink of collapse, Mitt Romney called for Detroit to go bankrupt. Instead, President Obama stepped up and provided emergency rescue loans to save 1.4 million American jobs,” said Michigan Democratic Party Chair Mark Brewer. “Now that sales are increasing and the auto industry is coming back, the question today is whether Mitt Romney will keep rooting for the US auto industry to fail or will he flip-flop and admit that he was wrong to want the automakers to go bankrupt?”
Throughout the campaign, Mitt Romney has maintained a disturbing pattern of rooting against the American automotive industry. He has repeatedly opposed the emergency rescue loans that the government provided to stabilize General Motors and Chrysler – sticking instead to his original statement that Detroit should have been allowed to go bankrupt.
At an Iowa debate, Romney stated that he wouldn’t support American auto companies doing innovative work in alternative energy vehicles if foreign competitors like Toyota “could do a better job,” and on a Boston radio show, he mocked the Chevrolet Volt as “an idea whose time has not come.”
Thursday, December 01, 2011
Ohio Gov. John Kasich Is ‘Very Pleased’ That The Auto Rescue He Originally Opposed Saved The Auto Industry
By Tanya Somanader/Think Progress
In 2008, the Obama administration fought the tide of Republican disapproval and decided to rescue General Motors and Chrysler. Millions in paid back loans and thousands of additional jobs later, GM and Chrysler areon track to sell 14 million cars, the “fastest pace in more than two years.”
The American auto recovery is simultaneously spurring an about-face among GOP naysayers. Once calling on America to “let Detroit go bankrupt,” GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney recently claimed that the rescue was his idea first. Now, another Republican is following suit: Ohio Gov. John Kasich (R).
When first asked about financial aid for the auto industry in 2008, Kasich dismissed the idea, saying, “If they’re not going to be viable, we shouldn’t throw good money after bad.” Asked for his feelings now that the rescue is showing success, Kasich said he is “very pleased” that the Americans have the jobs he originally opposed saving:
Rick Snyder, Kasich’s fellow Republican governor in Michigan, has said that government invention helped save Chrysler and General Motors – and he warned GOP presidential candidates against criticizing the bailout.Kasich would not go that far.“What’s done is done,” he said. “We have a strengthening auto industry in Ohio. And I am very pleased about it. I am pleased for the families of workers who have jobs.”
The auto funds have been vital to saving and creating jobs in Ohio. One Chrysler plant in Toledo, Ohio was able to add 1,100 new jobs this fall. More than merely pleased, Kasich attempted to take credit for the added jobs — a fact that did not escape Ohio workers.
When asked about Romney’s similar position on the auto rescue, Kasich offered, “I think there isn’t a single person that I know that didn’t want to have a strong auto industry in America…Its just a matter of how you get there.” When asked whether he agreed with Romney’s way of “getting there” via bankruptcy, he simply said, “I just don’t have any interest in even commenting on that.”
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
House Speaker Bolger endorses man who wanted no part of saving our domestic auto companies
Isn’t this spayshul? Republican Speaker of the Michigan House Jase Bolger is endorsing Mitt Romney to be the GOP presidential candidate. Remember Mitt and his last salvo in Michigan? He is the one who said THIS:
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.Without that bailout, Detroit will need to drastically restructure itself. With it, the automakers will stay the course — the suicidal course of declining market shares, insurmountable labor and retiree burdens, technology atrophy, product inferiority and never-ending job losses. Detroit needs a turnaround, not a check.
Just as a quick reminder to all of you keeping score at home: the “check” we cut for the auto manufacturers kept them from disappearing and they have been roaring back ever since, paying back nearly all the money loaned to them early.
Way to pull for the home team, there, Jase. You have some strange ideas about what and who is good for Michigan, that’s for sure.
Friday, September 16, 2011
House Republicans Seek Auto Industry Cuts To Cover For Disaster Relief Funds
By Tyler Kingkade/Huffington Post
WASHINGTON -- House Republicans rolled out their plan to fund disaster relief in Majority Leader Eric Cantor's (R-Va.) district, but at the cost of almost half of remaining loans set aside to help the American auto industry.
Included in their plan for a continuing resolution to fund the government past Sept. 30 is a provision to cut $1.5 billion of the $3.4 billion in remaining funds for low-cost loans -- sometimes referred to as "Section 136 loans." The money would be reused to pay for aid to states as they clean up after recent natural disasters like Hurricane Irene and the rare east coast earthquake -- both of which greatly affected Cantor's Virginia district. The cost of disaster assistance is usually added to the budget deficit instead of offset with cuts.
Democrats and an auto industry expert warn the funds Cantor picked to pay for disaster aid is currently supporting a successful program that has pulled manufacturing jobs back from other countries and helped keep the industry alive around the eastern Midwest. Taking the money away would jeopardize that program.
"We absolutely need to fund disaster recovery assistance in Eric Cantor's district and all areas affected by Hurricane Irene and the recent earthquake, but that doesn't make it ok to kill American manufacturing jobs," Rep. Gary Peters (D-Mich.) said in a statement to The Huffington Post. "The Greater Detroit area that I represent has been hit the hardest by the recession and I strongly oppose the Republican plan to kill our jobs and delay our recovery.”
The loan program is part of a $25 billion initiative within the Energy Independence and Security Act of 2007, which was a broad plan Democrats pushed to improve energy efficiency in everything from fuel standards to light bulbs.
Even as Republicans have sought to encourage "Made in America" products, experts say this is one of the programs that has achieved bringing manufacturing jobs to the U.S.
The loans for the auto industry were meant to help encourage new manufacturing plants in the U.S. and re-equip existing facilities, as well as drive the companies toward making more fuel-efficient vehicles.
It was adding some match-type money that would be dedicated to this and give the industry some additional incentive instead of having to wait until the consumer demand; sort of putting the horse out in front of the cart to pull it along," said Kim Hill, associate director of research at the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, Mich.
One of the direct results was that Ford quit manufacturing their Ford Focus in Mexico.
"All of the Focus production is now here in Michigan," Hill said. "Nissan is building their Leaf in Tennessee. I don't think that program would've happened in the United States if it weren't for this type of money."
Democrats told The Huffington Post the cut to the loan program would have an impact in manufacturing across the country, not just the auto industry in Michigan.
"If the $1.5 billion were cut it would mean that those with applications in the early stages of approval would not get funding," a Democratic Hill source said. "It would mean that thousands of jobs already in the pipeline would not be created. It is difficult to predict the kind of ripple effect this could have throughout the auto industry and other manufacturing sectors, but this will absolutely damage progression toward improving CAFE standards and limit the ability of American manufacturers to compete on a global playing field."
Hill said the idea of defunding the program to pay for disaster is shortsighted. "Where we sit here in Michigan -- that actually was disaster relief. This region of the country was going to fall apart if some of these companies failed," Hill said.
The program didn't simply help the auto industry, Hill said, but there's a number of other states, including many in Speaker John Boehner's home state of Ohio, who are the center of major parts suppliers. As Hill explains it, the auto makers don't create a car in a vacuum. In some cases, they are reaching out to 1,000 different suppliers.
The Government Accountability Office found this program is already understaffed and as such there has been a real problem distributing the funds leaving some companies barely hanging on. For instance, Chrysler Group, LLC., has been waiting on a $3 billion loan for three years now.
This is only one way Republicans are chipping away at legislation passed to improve energy standards in the U.S. The GOP has long been opposed to elements of the Energy Independence and Security Act.
House Republicans pursued the "Light Bulb Freedom of Choice Act" which would've repealed the phase-out of the old high energy-consuming light bulbs, in favor of energy efficient ones. Since that effort has stalled, some Republican-controlled states have tried to slide in their own legislation on light bulb "freedom."
The remaining money in the loan program could all be used if the $3.9 billion in pending requests are granted, Democrats said.
The Hill reported House Minority Whip Steny Hoyer (D-Md.) indicated Thursday that Democrats would be widely opposed to cutting this funding from the loan program in the Department of Energy.
"What we are doing, in my view ... is undermining a specific item in the current scheme of things that is creating jobs," Hoyer said.
Cantor's office did not respond when asked for comment.
On Thursday the Senate passed their version to fund disaster relief without any offset by a vote of 62-37. If a resolution is not made by Sept. 30, FEMA would have to delay aid to disaster victims.
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