Romney: Obama 'Gave' Car Companies to UAW
Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney on Wednesday insisted that President Barack Obama made a mistake by saving the U.S. auto industry because "the president gave those companies" to the United Auto Workers (UAW) labor union.
During a CNN debate in Mesa, Arizona, the former Massachusetts governor admitted that he had supported Wall Street bailouts while calling for the car companies go bankrupt in a New York Times op-ed.
"I don't want to save any Wall Street bank, I just don't want to make sure we lose all of our banks," Romney explained. "My view is this: We have to have industries that get in trouble go through bankruptcies."
"I wrote my piece and I said, 'Look, these companies need to go through managed bankruptcy.' And the head of the UAW said, 'We can't go through managed bankruptcy. The industry will disappear if that happens.' And the politicians, Barack Obama's people, 'Oh, no. We can't go through managed bankruptcy.' Six months, they wrote, I think it was $17 billion in checks to the auto companies and then they finally realized I was right."
He added: "Because they put that money in, the president gave the companies to the UAW. They were part of the reason the companies were in trouble. Giving these companies to the UAW was wrong."
The New Republic's Jonathan Cohn has called that claim "a pretty skewed version of the truth."
"[T]he unions had by 2009 already made major concessions in order to help the companies restructure... Then, during the bankruptcy, the unions agreed to further concessions still, on pay, vacations, job security, health benefits, and work rules. As a result, traditional Chrysler and GM hourly employees have seen no annual raises since 2003 and will see no raises until at least 2015, when they bargain the next contract."
What utter absolute bullshit. Obama can't even find his fucking comfortable walking shoes.
the man who originally made that awesomely racist comment, Earl Butz, used the phrase "loose" shoes?
Hasa Diga Eebowai
My luminarian friend, TFR.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=C-n1XHcZ-Gk
"That's fu*#ing retarded."
Big City Mayor
realized the following was a parody: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bJYRJhopcy4
Hasa Diga Eebowai
TPLSAAWPTS
I stand corrected. Fabulous video.
Texas had an elected Ag Commissioner once who referred to Booker T. Washington in a speech as "That great Ni**er..er..ero educator"
I am not sure if that caused his defeat. He also put his hand in a fire ant mound in front of the press corp to demonstrate the scourge those critters were. In any case he was replaced by Jim Hightower, who thought his corn pone progressivism was what turned the trick. Hightower in turn was defeated by....Rick Perry.
"That's fu*#ing retarded."
Big City Mayor
Where's the teachable moment in that? Gotta have 'em stick their own hands in them mounds, just like my dad did with me as a kid with stoves, razor blades, paperclips/electrical outlets and caged pitbulls.
"Parachutes are allowed in checked or carry-on baggage, but may not be worn in flight."
---Southwest Airlines
to do it again. The press had a field day. Suckers ran right up his arm and chowed down.
"That's fu*#ing retarded."
Big City Mayor
with the Africanized bee, aka Killer Bees.
"That's fu*#ing retarded."
Big City Mayor
I remember the original quote attributed to a Delta bluesman, not sure who but Pine Top Perkins comes to mind.
We all know, because a well respected C&L commenter keeps posting about it,
that some book once quoted Rahmses as saying "Fuck the UAW." That is even firmer proof than anrgy spittle about walking shoes.
"That's fu*#ing retarded."
Big City Mayor
someone can ask the mittster who will be paying for the health care costs of all current and future GM retirees ?? just askin'
(hint: a union type entity that got an equity stake in the compnay....)
MittWitt is a himbo; a fucking dumb ass from the word go. I'm surprised he can walk upright and remember to breathe.
Reader, suppose you were an idiot. And suppose you were a member of Congress. But I repeat myself.
Romney wants to make sure he provides the (r)ed meat for those voters that live outside of Detroit in the state of Michigan. Romney and the rest of the clowns know that joe average has no idea of the workings regarding the auto bailout. What gets me, is these guys are different on national tv/media vs. in state campaigning. They totally criticize the opposition of policies/votes they did themselves. Its ridiculous people will vote strictly for the (r) next to their name.
To be fair I absolutely won't vote for anyone with an (r) next to their name.
Yes, they must go through bankruptcy so that vulture capitalists like Romney can get his cut.
It seems odd to me that corporations (which are people after all) have one set of bankruptcy laws, while actual people have another, much more restrictive set. Seems like they should have to play by the same rules as the plebes when it comes to bankruptcy if they want to be treated the same when it comes to other rights such as speech.
that at the time his op-ed was written there was a massive liquidity crisis and no private pool of capital capable of carrying out a privately financed re-organization of two major auto companies. I must say that I admire the easy facility with which he tells his lies. You'd almost think he believed them himself.
Hasa Diga Eebowai
If bankruptcy would have resulted in many many more unemployed. He'd get more upset if a few hairs got out of place.
Romney knows the UAW made huge concessions. Labor became a two-tier wage structure. They slashed labor costs from $76 per hour worker to $50 per hour. New hires start at $14 per hour. Another concession is a ban on strikes. I think something that's forgotten is that their financial arm GMAC caused a lot of problems for GM.
We've seen it over and over in various industries. Workers make huge concessions to save the company that continues to pay executives huge bonuses to drive the company into bankruptcy. Then the company makes a turnaround and the executives get even larger bonuses while the union members lose more jobs, benefits and security.
RepubliCapitalists always insist that participants of a deal should "have some skin in the game."
Well union members should share in the restored profitability of any company where their skin is the only thing in the game!
The best lack all conviction, while the worst
Are full of passionate intensity.
at harley-davidson,buy the company?
....the fools do not realize,a population that can ,..... not paticipate .............in the 'economy'...,can not keep it viable!..........."we are listening,.......and we're not blind.,......this is your life....this is your time."
The current crew ran it in the ditch and needed a bailout!
Journalists should the touch-base on the basics, and ask each candidate: "Is labor superior to capital? If so, why? And if not, why not?".
supported Toyota for over a quarter of a century? The company was supported, at times partially nationalized, by the Japanese government. The government there supported the company for over a quarter of a century. Toyota tried to break into the American market and failed. Its cars were cheap and were low quality. Many in Japan at the time talked like the crazy right wing here. Let the "free market" work, they talked about the (totally inaccurate) comparative advantage that Japan had. Well, the government didn't listen and the company eventually improved. If the government didn't step in and support Toyota there would have never been a Lexus. So, did Japan make a mistake? Does a person with a working brain even ask that question? There is an obvious difference between bailing out banks, whose product is debt and who we are indebted TO, and car companies make real things that can earn export earnings. Here's Ha Joon Chang on this story (why the left doesn't bring this example up time and time again is beyond me):
http://mrzine.monthlyreview.org/2008/chang030...
Let me start my talk with a little story. In 1958, Japan tried to export this first passenger car to the US market. The company was Toyota, the car was called Toyopet. And, as you can guess from the name, it was a very cheap, small subcompact car, more of a four-wheels-and-an-ashtray kind of thing, which Toyota hoped rich American consumers could pick up as an afterthought, after finishing their grocery shopping with the changes left. Unfortunately, it was a total flop, so much so that Toyota actually had to withdraw the product. In the realm of failures, this is, like, the biggest thing. It's not just not selling well -- it had to be withdrawn from the market.
This provoked a very heated debate in Japan. The free trade economists centered around the Bank of Japan, the central bank, said, "Look, this is what happens when you go against the theory of comparative advantage. In a country like Japan, which in relative terms has lots of labor and little capital, we shouldn't be producing things like motor cars, which are very capital-intensive in production." Of course, at that time, Japan's biggest export item was silk. So, case proven, already. And they said, "Don't tell us that you couldn't succeed because you didn't have help. You had 25 years of very high tariff protection. We kicked out all the foreign car makers 20 years ago and didn't let any of them in since then. And back in 1949 this central bank even injected public money into Toyota to save it from bankruptcy. So, please don't tell us that you couldn't succeed because you didn't have help, because you had all the help you can ask for."
...Now, it gets better, because the ironic thing is that, half a century after the Toyota debacle, Toyota's luxury brand Lexus has become something of an icon for free market globalization thanks to the American journalist Thomas Friedman...Now, the crazy thing is, go back to the earlier Toyopet example, when you think about that, basically, if Japan had followed Friedman's kind of advice in the 1950s and 1960s, the Japanese would not be exporting the Lexus, because Toyota probably would have been either wiped out or more likely taken over by General Motors and made into some secondary producer.
Why doesn't this guy just STFU?
Do you want the nomination or not Mitten's?
It's yours for the taking - if you would just STFU!
If I were his campaign manager, I would tell him to STFU!
Little Ricky is so backward-ass bat shit crazy, that he will eventually talk himself out of contention.
I'll bet Bachmann and Perry wish they would've stuck around.
And where is Herman Cain? I miss Herman. He was like a real live minstrel show for the GOP crackers.
If I were a psychopath, I would join the republican party, and get in on the gravy train taking the Teabircher morons to the cleaners.
No wonder Romney's sliding, unable even to knock out a moron like Santorum. He's in Michigan trying to convince people that the auto industry needed to use its hard times to really once and for all break the unions, that worker concessions haven't gone anywhere near far enough.
Yeah, that goes over well.
Wait a minute. Plastic Fantastic Mittens says "Obama 'gave' auto companies to the UAW. But wasn't it Mittens who said that the whole auto company bailout was his idea in the first place? So Mittens actually 'gave' the auto companies to the UAW? These stupid GOPiggies make it too easy to ridicule them.
Who would that idiot Romney do? Who would he give the auto companies to? China? Will someone please tell him to leave the country?
So lets be clear about this. If the enterprise succeeds, its because management is genius and deserves a huge payday. If it fails, it is the worker's (union's) fault. Everybody clear on that?
GOP 101 for Trust Funder's.
If I were a psychopath, I would join the republican party, and get in on the gravy train taking the Teabircher morons to the cleaners.
Shorter Mittens: "Pension obligations? F**K THAT. *Real* jaaahb creators know that screwing over employees Bain-style and leaving them with nothing is the only capitalist thing to do!"
I mean the guy's got a pile of his own money so why does he seem so envious of other's success? Why does he want to take away the money they've worked hard to earn with their own sweat and cleverness?
Oh yeah, right, those questions only apply when we're talking about people in the 1% and their millions.
Mitt Romney staches all of his ILL GOTTEN LOOT in the KAMNEN ISLANDS as not to pay any AMERICAN TAXES. AND he would like for Me to VOTE for HIM to BECOME PRESIDENT of MY COUNTRY. NOT IN THIS LIFETIME. Lets send him to HIS COUNTRY OF CHOICE THE KAMNEN ISLANDS. TOO many of my FRIENDS WERE BLEEDING AND DYING WHILE ROMNEY was looting ALL OF THESE COUMPANYS that my FRIENDS ONCE WORKED.
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