guionM

Still strikes me as ironic that there are still people who mentally rewrite history and facts to make this something that was strictly the doings of the current administration.

Fact is, the auto industry bailout happened Bush (which was given without conditions....the next administration demanded changes before they'd cough up money).

The alternative would have been a 21% unemployment rate and as has been stated many times, most likely a 2nd great depression.

He spoke to the NADA convention recently.

Bush Would

It's easy today to forget how close to the abyss we came.

HAZ-Matt

I saw this story earlier as well.

I think it was the right move.

95firehawk

Are you trying to bring your political views onto a site that strictly prohibits doing so by posting comments that in themselves are trying to rewrite history? This is neither needed or wanted here and I am personally getting tired of it. If you can't post without injecting your political beliefs then don't post. It's getting harder and harder to read about Automotive News/Industry/ and Future Vehicles without the political BS. Give it a rest.

With that being said, regardless of who started it, enacted it, whatever, I too agree that it was the right thing to do for the future of American autos as well as our economy.

El Duce

Lighten up Francis.

95firehawk

It's almost every post with this guy. I respect that he does offer a lot of information but the first two paragraphs were unnecessary. With the elections, the media coverage of said elections, and general over-saturation of politics this is one of the few sanctuaries I have left that's not supposed to have any of that garbage and I would like to see it stay that way.

I could care less who enacted what policy or who killed what referendum. I come here to read about the world of the automobile and that's it.

jg95z28

Come on... after all the complaining done by one party yesterday about Chrysler's Superbowl commercial being a plug for the current administration bailing out the auto industry, this thread is right in line with reminding us that it was in fact the former administration that began the process.

Political parties aside, IMHO anyone who is against the government bailout of the auto industry is un-American, regardless of their party affiliation.

King Moose SS

This man speaks the truth.

HuJass

I never agreed with anything Bush did, but this one he got spot on.
I'm giving credit where credit is due.

USHotRod

So the Bush administration bailed out the auto-industry...

...then the Obama administration bailed out the auto industry...

...the OP stated he was for the bailout....

...hows that translate into expressing his political views?

Z28x

Bailing out the auto industry was the right thing to do (no pun intended). It saved millions of jobs and saved the federal and state governments hundreds of Billions of dollars. With the jobs saved all those gov'ts get income and sales tax revenue, had those jobs disappeared they would have been spending money they didn't have on unemployment.

The Bush Dec. 2008 bailouts also pushed the bankruptcies months into the next presidents administration as opposed to sticking him with a collapsing industry and a country on the verge of another great depression on day 1. This was the right thing to do as it bought the new admin time to deal with the terrible situation. I commend president Bush for doing the right thing for the country instead of trying to sabotage the new democratic president like many in his party wanted him to do.

Germany, Japan, and China have no problem standing behind their auto companies.

bossco

Agreed 110%

TOO Z MAXX

I do agree it was the right thing to do, but all this speculation that the world was going to end is pure bs. It would have hurt but I am not buying 21% unemployement figure at all.

bossco

That seems about right, I've read elsewhere that the loss of an auto manufacturer ripples through the economy by about a factor of 10 when it comes to job loss.

guionM

Whatever dude.

If you read my stating that some people here that rather look at the bailouts as a left-wing, political gimmick instead of the fact that it was the absolutely correct decision that crossed political lines (supported by BOTH Bush and Obama!), and pointing that out sends you into vapor lock, then that's on you.

It works out like this.

GM collaspses. Also so does Chrysler.

That means those industries that support both GM and Chrysler cave in.

Then those areas (towns, cities, and states) that depend on those people spending and buying who now have no income no longer are buying and spending..... and they lose jobs.

Being that the automotive industry layed off only a fraction of it's entire workforce and with everything else unemployment went past 10%, what do you think would have happened if the US auto industry would have completely shut down? 21% unemplyment by the time the dust settled is most certainly plausable.

But even more scary is that government spending would shoot up to almost catastrophic levels due to unemployment compensations, the Feds having to dish out money to pay for at least a large portions of the pensions of all those jobless workers let alone the jacked up medical costs for those that now have none.

Although that would have blown the debt to astronomical levels alone, remember, you'd have perhaps millions of people who would suddenly be paying little to no income taxes, so revenue would take a massive hit.

While the feds would take a humungous hit, but the hit some states would take would send them right into 3rd world status. Not just Michigan, but Indiana, Illinois, Ohio, Missouri, and quite likely even more (you think some of these states have budget problems now?!).

Just over a decade ago, a strike GM had had a nearly 2% affect on the economy for that month.....and that's just a short strike.

Bush was right on the money on this decision.

If he hadn't done an end run around the congress on this, we'd have a lot worse things on our mind today than an long extinct GM and a Camaro that never was.

Bob Cosby

The ironic thing is the current Administration will likely trumpet THEIR bailout of the auto industry as a reason for supporting them in November....and boy that does drip with irony if you think about it, as the challenger really can't come back and say "no, it was our side that started the bailout"....