Mitt Romney says he deserves “a lot of credit” for the recent successes of the nation’s largest car companies.
Wow, time to buy a bigger Etch A Sketch!
Yes, while campaigning in the backyard of America’s auto industry, the GOP presumptive presidential nominee revived the debate over the government bailouts of General Motors and Chrysler.
“I pushed the idea of a managed bankruptcy, and finally when that was done, and help was given, the companies got back on their feet,” Romney told an Ohio television station yesterday during an interview from inside a Cleveland-area autoparts maker. “So, I’ll take a lot of credit for the fact that this industry has come back.”
But Romney deserves NO credit for the auto rescue.
When he wrote Let Detroit Go Bankrupt in November 2008, Romney was living in a complete fantasy by thinking that private funding was available during the reorganization of those auto companies.
Nearly all the experts, including then-Vice Chair of GM (and self-described conservative) Bob Lutz, agree that the government’s $81 billion bailout was the only source of financing to keep the automakers alive through bankruptcy. “He (Romney) thinks we didn’t try to borrow money from the banks,” Lutz told the Detroit Free Press in February. “The banks were even more broke than we were. Who had the money?” Even Republicans who have endorsed Romney are dumbfounded by his latest take on the auto rescue. “Romney said that he was responsible for the auto bailout?” asked Sen. John McCain today in disbelief.
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