Romney aide claims auto bailout was Romney's idea

[PhilipLaos]

One of Mitt Romney's top advisers said Saturday that President Obama's decision to bailout Chrysler and General Motors was actually Romney's idea.

"Romney's position on the bailout was exactly what President Obama followed. I know it infuriates them to hear that," Eric Fehrnstrom, senior adviser to the Romney campaign, said. "The only economic success that President Obama has had is because he followed Mitt Romney's advice."

The claim appears to be a shift from Mitt Romney's November 2008 op-ed in The New York Times, headlined, "Let Detroit go bankrupt."But on Saturday, Fehrnstrom pointed out that in the op-ed, Romney called for a "managed bankruptcy" to get the auto companies back on stable financial footing. "The fact that the auto companies today are profitable is because they've shed costs," Fehronstrom said. "The reason they shed those costs and have got their employee labor contracts less expensive is because they went through that managed bankruptcy process. It is exactly what Mitt Romney told them to do."

But during the primary campaign, Romney repeatedly attacked Obama for lending billions of dollars in government money to the auto companies.

Lis Smith, an Obama campaign spokeswoman, accused Fehrnstrom of distorting Romney's record. “GM and Chrysler are in existence, creating jobs, and posting some of their most profitable quarters in history today because President Obama bet on American workers," Smith said in a statement to The Hill. "If Mitt Romney had had his way, the American auto industry and the millions of jobs it supports would cease to exist. Dishonesty and distortions are nothing new for the Romney campaign, but they can’t change this simple fact.”

More at: : http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/...um=twitterfeed

[KICK]

I guess he was for it after he was against it.

seems to be a common mentality in politics..

[PhilipLaos]

I don't know enough about the various US bankruptcy procedures to be able to argue a coherent case for either side of this. Having said that, it strikes me as odd that in the UK bankruptcy is considered as the end of your business life, whereas in the US it seems to be considered as part of the learning curve, a chance to write off your debts and start again.

Odd that.

Romney certainly stated that the US automakers should be allowed to go into bankruptcy. The question now is, "Would they have recovered to the same extent, or faster, by going down the normal US bankruptcy procedures and restructuring as they did by being bailed out by the government and avoiding normal bankruptcy prodedures?"

Romney's argument was and is that they would have been better off declaring bankruptcy.


Philip

[SRV Ron]

GM would have certainly recovered much faster once they would have been able to shed the heavy yoke of the UAW sucking away all of their income in legacy cost. Needless to say, Democrats couldn't allow that to happen. That would have resulted in a major loss of union donations to their party.

Now GM has become Government Motors with Obama dictating that they promote his Green agenda in their products. They have measured success by forcing the very high mileage mandate on the domestic auto market, which will destroy the light truck market, and the sales of less then 1,000 a month vastly overpriced Government subsided Chevy Volt. And the billions in loans claimed to be paid off, those were paid off by billions in additional loans. Meanwhile, the stockholder were screwed thus destroying 401 accounts of many of the retirees in the country.

[lakechampainer]

By way of background, Eric Fehrnstrom is the "etch-a-sketch" man. Seems to suffer from foot-in-mouth disease.

[Cult Icon]

I doubt that any administration- McCain, Obama, Huckabee, or Romney would have refused to bail out the auto industry.

That's 250,000 + jobs right there and tens of thousands, if not over a hundred thousand more related jobs on the line during the 11th hour.

[copenhagen]

Originally Posted by KICK

I guess he was for it after he was against it.

seems to be a common mentality in politics..

Definitely a common practice of Romney. He's the Massachusetts flip flopper isn't he?

[rebpreacher]

He must be related to Al Bore,after all Al invented the internet. So Romney will claim anything too.

[KICK]

if you read the articlein the OP
Mitt never said anything

notice an aide of Mitt is doing a misinformation thing

plausible deniability or one of those things?

[PhilipLaos]

Originally Posted by KICK

if you read the articlein the OP
Mitt never said anything

notice an aide of Mitt is doing a misinformation thing

plausible deniability or one of those things?

I'd imagine Mitt would be seriously unhappy with the way his aide put it since the two approaches were radically different - not one copying the idea of the other.


Philip

[KICK]

Originally Posted by philiplaos

I'd imagine Mitt would be seriously unhappy with the way his aide put it since the two approaches were radically different - not one copying the idea of the other.


Philip

I think you will find that the real story is somewhat different than what is posted here.

what I have heard is Romney more or less says he was for a managed bankruptcy of the auto makers... so some of this is just a play on words, as all things political tend to be.

[Jannie]

If I were that spokesman for Mitt, I would be careful of claiming that Obama stole his idea. After all, we know that Obama stole Mitt's idea for mandated health insurance.

Rather than electing Bush light in choosing Mitt, we might be electing Obama's idea man!

[Half Pint John]

Didn't the idea of the bail outs come from GW?

[Bass_Man86]

Originally Posted by philiplaos

One of Mitt Romney's top advisers said Saturday that President Obama's decision to bailout Chrysler and General Motors was actually Romney's idea.

More at: : http://thehill.com/blogs/ballot-box/...um=twitterfeed

Yet another reason why he will not get my vote. Ambassador Huntsman pithily described Romney as a political weather vane, an accurate description to say the least!

[Jonathanrex1]

Originally Posted by Bass_Man86

Yet another reason why he will not get my vote. Ambassador Huntsman pithily described Romney as a political weather vane, an accurate description to say the least!

I'd more describe him as a pragmatist. Someone who will do (or consider) anything to solve a problem. I don't think he holds any ideological political beliefs.