Obama Defends Auto Bailout in Midwest
Politico reports:
In what could be a preview of their 2012 reelection campaign, President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden toured a revived auto plant here, tweaking their critics and claiming vindication for the administration’s controversial decision to bail out the financially strapped auto industry last year.
A week after General Motors’ post-bankruptcy stock sale smashed records on Wall Street, Obama told an assembled group of autoworkers at a Chrysler plant that the industry is “coming back, we’re on the move!” The GM stock sale and the revival of the plant, he added, proves that his decision to rescue the industry — decried by Republicans — saved jobs that otherwise would have vanished and triggered Kokomo’s economic rebound.
“You remember the voices arguing for us to do nothing,” Obama said at Indiana Transmission, which manufactures components for Chrysler vehicles. “We made the decision to stand behind the auto industry. Today we know that was the right decision.”
The rally was the president’s first campaign-style event since the November midterm elections, when a Republican surge — fueled in part by voter anger about the economy — cost Democrats control of the House and weakened their majority in the Senate. Analysts interpreted the vote as a damaging blow to Obama and his agenda, and on Tuesday the president’s message at the plant pivoted from criticism of Republicans toward a more upbeat vision about the county’s future.
Both Chrysler and GM employ thousands in Kokomo, and Obama said those jobs have a ripple effect on the local economy, preserving jobs and spurring growth at restaurants, shops and other small businesses. As a result, the president said, his administration’s investment in the auto industry — including the financial bailout and the popular “Cash for Clunkers” buyer incentive plan — helped save this small town, and others like it, in the nation’s heartland.
“Anybody who would doubt our prospects for the future, anybody who doesn’t believe in the Midwest — have ‘em come to Kokomo,” Obama said.
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