Michigan Democrats question Romney for his support of killing the auto industry in ’08

Created: June 09, 2011 09:01 | Last updated: July 31, 2020 00:00

Image has not been found. URL: http://images.americanindependent.com/2010/08/MahurinElephant_Thumb.jpgRepublican presidential candidate Mitt Romney, son of legendary Michigan Governor George Romney, came through Michigan on Wednesday on a fundraising trip. But the Michigan Democratic Party questioned why Michigan residents would support Romney after he advocated killing the state’s major industry.

In a press release, the MDP said:

As Mitt Romney kicked off a fundraising and campaign swing through the Detroit area today, he’ll have to answer to Michigan voters for his advocacy of auto industry bankruptcy in 2008. After continually criticizing the President’s plan to rescue the auto industry from collapse, his visit to Detroit won’t be the happy homecoming he’d hoped for.

In a 2008 New York Times Op-Ed, entitled “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt,” Mitt Romney argued against the loan packages President Obama extended to General Motors and Chrysler. The President’s action to rescue the industry came under criticism from Romney and Republicans, but it has paid off and an industry that supports 1.4 million American jobs is hiring again. Recently, GM announced 2,500 new jobs in Hamtramck, and Chrysler will add another 1,200 at Jefferson North Assembly in Detroit.

“Mitt Romney’s Michigan Hypocrisy Tour won’t be the happy homecoming he’s hoping for. In fact, I don’t think we’ve seen a less inviting homecoming since LeBron went back to Cleveland,” MDP Chair Mark Brewer said. “While he’s here profiting off of Michigan, we have a few questions about his 2008 plan that would have let the American auto industry collapse and ruin Michigan’s economy. Romney’s not here to help Michigan, he’s here to fill his campaign coffers and get a couple photo-ops in a state he wrote off in 2008.”

It’s difficult to overstate how devastating it would have been to Michigan’s economy if GM and Chrysler had been liquidated through bankruptcy in 2009 rather than helped to reorganize through managed bankruptcies. Economists say that the entire American auto industry would have collapsed, eliminating well over a million jobs.

And it wasn’t only Michigan Democrats slamming Romney. Rep. Thad McCotter, who may be contemplating a run for the GOP nomination himself, told the Detroit News that Romney is a mirror image of President Obama:

“Motor City hospitality dictates a Michigan message to Mitt that our struggling families, entrepreneurs and workers think Mr. Romney and Mr. Obama are not rivals, they’re running mates,” said Rep. Thaddeus McCotter, R-Livonia.

Despite railing against TARP and the bank bailouts as socialist and terrible, McCotter supported the bailout of the auto industry in 2009.