In an interview in Ohio, Mitt Romney tried to take credit for the recovery of the auto industry:
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.
So I’ll take a lot of credit for the fact that this industry’s come back.
Of course, Romney argued strongly for no government bailout of the auto industry, and even published an op-ed piece in the NY Times “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt”. In that article, Romney argued that if there was a bailout of the auto industry, then “its demise will be virtually guaranteed.”
Instead, Obama pushed through a bailout, and this year GM posted record profits. Chrysler posted its first profits last year since 2005. In addition, more than half the bailout loan has been paid back.
But reality doesn’t seem to matter to Romney. Watch him take credit:
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The managed bankruptcy (Chapter 11) Romney was talking about would have kept the auto companies in tact. The point of bankruptcy isn’t to end the company, but to allow a legal, judge supervised route for rearrangement of the company. GM and Chrysler would still be around with Romney’s plan.
The Obama plan was the one that took it directly into the government’s hands, with the traditional bankruptcy payment hierarchy–the hierarchy that all shareholders and stakeholder implicitly used to evaluate their assets–completely, and probably illegally, ignored.
Wasn’t it Bush’s plan, not Obama’s?