Toledo
Blade Editorial...
Victory tour
6/3/11
Candidate Barack Obama visited the Toledo area frequently. President
Obama makes his first trip here today to laud his administration’s
success in helping to pull Chrysler Group LLC and General Motors back
from the brink of collapse. He’s entitled to gloat, a little.
Mr. Obama’s predecessor, President George W. Bush, initiated the
federal bailouts of Chrysler and GM. When the $17 billion in loans Mr.
Bush provided the automakers proved insufficient to avert disaster, the
Obama Administration embarked on a more ambitious program.
It included more loans, a government ownership stake in the companies,
and tough union concessions that would help Chrysler and GM emerge from
their troubles in a better position to succeed. The rescue cost
taxpayers $80 billion.
Republicans — especially in right-to-work states with foreign
automakers’ “transplants” — were incensed. Billions of taxpayer dollars
were going down a sinkhole, they said. Government investment in the
auto industry was an abomination. Let the Detroit dinosaurs die.
If the President had bowed to those critics, America would have lost as
many as 1 million jobs. Had Chrysler and GM failed, thousands of parts
suppliers and dealerships would have followed. Whole communities — many
in Ohio and Michigan — would have been devastated.
Instead, largely because Mr. Obama believed the U.S. auto industry was
worth saving, GM and Chrysler have returned to profitability. GM has
repaid almost half the money it borrowed from the government. Chrysler,
which recently paid back the final $5.9 billion in bailout funds it
got, is doing so well that some people even question whether it needs
to partner with the Italian automaker Fiat.
And instead of shedding jobs and helping turn an economic recession
into a second depression, Chrysler and GM have added about 115,000
workers in recent months.
The federal government now estimates — conservatively — it will get
back more than 80 percent of the money it lent Chrysler and GM. If the
automakers maintain their progress of the past two years, the
government could recover its entire investment — or even turn a profit.
That makes the federal Troubled Asset Relief Program look less like a
bailout and more like a smart investment.
Despite its necessary efforts to diversify the local economy, the
Toledo area still has a huge stake in the success of the domestic auto
industry. Had Chrysler failed, the local effect would have been severe.
But it has rebounded instead, largely because of federal action.
That likely will be President Obama’s message today as he visits
Chrysler’s Toledo North assembly plant. He plans to talk to local
business operators and residents who would have been crushed by the
automaker’s collapse.
Ohio Republican Chairman Kevin DeWine scoffs at a “presidential victory
lap,” but people in the northwest corner of the state know how
important that victory was. If Mr. Obama wants to rev his engine a bit,
he’s earned that right.
Read it at the Toledo Blade
|
