Posted on 06/07/2009 8:31:32 AM PDT by Sub-Driver
Administration blames Bush for GM crisis By Mike Soraghan Posted: 06/07/09 11:24 AM [ET] The Obama administration has a familiar response to criticism of the General Motors bailout – they inherited this mess from George W. Bush.
Austan Goolsbee, a senior economic adviser to President Obama, said the administration's options were sharply limited by President Bush's handling of the auto industry, and accused the prior administration of running out the clock.
"They shook up the can. They opened the can and handed [it] to us in our laps," Goolsbee said on Fox News Sunday.
"When George Bush put money into General Motors, almost explicitly with the purpose -- how many dollars do they need to stay alive until January 20th, 2009, there was no commitment to restructuring, to making these viable enterprises of any kind," said Goolsbee, who serves as staff director and chief economist of the Obama's Economic Recovery Advisory Board.
In his first five months in office, Obama has often said that some of the politically difficult decisions he's made are the fault of his predecessor, most notably the $1.3 trillion budget deficit.
The Obama administration has steered the two troubled companies into bankruptcy and recently announced $30 billion in aid to General Motors, giving the government about 60 percent ownership of the company. Chrysler has been cleared to merge with Italian automaker Fiat.
(Excerpt) Read more at thehill.com ...
Blaming the voters is only a superficial assessment of the problem. I sometimes feel like punching the next person who tells me this is a democracy. The establishment of a constitutional federal republic placed safeguards against the actions of an ignorant or malevolent electorate. There has been a concerted effort to erode or disregard those safeguards through misinformation by the democrats and their lackeys in the media, unions, and education industries. This has only been compounded the lack of will by the GOP and its members who bask in the glow of governmental power and who are more than happy with being big noise in a permanent minority party.
Whatever Barry. You are the Present and this is now under your ownership so looking back over your shoulder is not very productive and only points to signs that the bailout and ownership, by the government, is going to fail spectacularly.
You aren’t even telegraphing this. From my point of view you are laying the groundwork to tell us this will be a failure for x number of reasons other than your incompetence.
“No mention of his lobbying Bush to give the auto industry the money, enough to hold them until he himself was in office.”
Well...I see nobody else responded to your excellent recall, so I will. Thanks for that.
This administration did NOT ‘inherit’ this mess - they VOLUNTEERED for it. I’ve always thought that anyone who would choose to run for President at this time in history must have a serious screw loose.
The guys I was referring to were not limited to the Obama administration. Our government election cycles are setup to smooth out the change process and force compromise. For various reasons that process has been subverted we are lurching to the left which can not be good because the correction could be as dramatic.
Spot on!
I see the old blame game is still on.
And when the hell will:
a. the media challenge them? (never)
b. Bush himself refute that nonsense? (at the earliest--in a book 3 years from now, when no one is listening anymore)
c. the average American voter tell Hussein and his cult to quit blaming others for their screw-ups? (when we conservatives begin to speak out...and even then, it'll take a while. Our first chance is in November of 2010. 17 months away.)
The issues:
- cars are too damned expensive and manufacturers priced themselves out of the market. They tried creative financing and leases.
- Americans were getting wise to their credit problems. Either by choice or by force. The only way Americans can afford new cars is to finance them.
- Planned obsolescence. Quality suffered and car companies benefited from high turnover rates. Buying a new car is a lot less compelling. Sure, you get a warranty but eventually the warranty expires and you have to pay for the repairs yourself.
Sorry Bambi, it’s June 7th, 2009.
That dog won’t hunt anymore.
If anything, Bush bent over to give ZerO whatever he wanted to hit the ground ruining. Bush should not have done anything.
LMAO!
Now there is a surprise. (/sarcasm)
So Axerod et al. like hoops analogies do they?
Well Zero threw up a brick from the freethrow line that would even have Shaq looking like JJ Redick.
No............ this mess was caused by GM, Chrysler and the Unions. The only fault that can be attributed to Bush is that he didn’t allow them to fail earlier and go into bankruptcy, period!
Let them blame bush, then laugh. Eventually this line is going to wear out and they are going to be caught.
At that point the public will start to believe everytime this line is used, they are lying and will automatically assume it is Obama’s fault.
Everytime he uses it, his poll numbers will slide.
Bush didn’t promote decades of union pandering or the very recent obummer solution to GM’s problems.
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