Mitt Romney: Let Detroit Go Bankrupt

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/19/opinion/19romney.html?hp ^

[MittFan08]

IF General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye. It won’t go overnight, but its demise will be virtually guaranteed.

Without that bailout, Detroit will need to drastically restructure itself. With it, the automakers will stay the course — the suicidal course of declining market shares, insurmountable labor and retiree burdens, technology atrophy, product inferiority and never-ending job losses. Detroit needs a turnaround, not a check.

[fieldmarshaldj]

Gee whiz, you that anxious for a 90% Democrat Congress and a 10% RINO knobshiners rump ?

[fieldmarshaldj]

Yup, when the breeze is coming from Slick Willard’s direction, it’s headed straight up our asses.

[Ingtar]

He promised to spend $20 billion instead of $4 billion on pie in the sky projects that would have been a money transfer.

The whole idea is to get the government’s hands off, not:

“I will roll up my sleeves in the first 100 days I’m in office, and I will personally bring together industry, labor, congressional, and state leaders and together we will develop a plan to rebuild America’s automotive leadership,” he said to applause.

[Diogenesis]

If there had been no Romney
(and his creating of legions of poisonous backstabbing),
Sen.McCain (or perhaps Thompson) would have been President-Elect.

[EternalVigilance]

Postering and pandering. That’s all this is. Poll-tested and focus-grouped shinola.

And while he’s doing it, his hacks have come in the back door and performed a leveraged buyout of the RNC and several of the biggest formerly “conservative” institutions that are its subsidiaries.

Wake up, conservatives.

[GOP_Lady]

Great article indeed. Isn’t that what we are thinking?

[fieldmarshaldj]

I wouldn’t go that far on the first part. Juan never wanted to win. He’s too interested in being the False Messiah’s knobshiner.

[truthguy]

I completely disagree. If we can get the right package together, then we need to save the domestic auto industry. The reason is that all the Car Companies have some really exciting new vehicles coming out in the next couple of years. If Detroit can make it through the next two years then it can survive.

We are going to have a rough next 18 months. It would be hard for any company to get through this time if didn't have the capital. If Detroit makes it then the money will be paid back to US taxpayer. The new contracts that the workers will have will greatly reduce the labor differential that exists with the foreign car companies.

We need our auto industry. We cannot lose the manufacturing expertise that resides in this industry. We can make great cars again. We have outstanding engineers- as good if not better than any in the world. It's simply a matter of cost structure for the US auto makers. We have lost so much of our manufacturing capacity as it is. We cannot afford to lost the auto industry. I don't give a rats a** about financial companies. We have bailed them out. Financial companies can be created virtually overnight. There's basically nothing to it. But the knowledge that goes into our manufacturing technology cannot be replaced once lost.

[Diogenesis]

What is amazing that Romney INCOMPETENCE is overlooked.

**** Let's compare brains of the candidates.
Fascist socialist-"S&cking on the Federal Teat"-Myth Romney
ruined Massachusetts economically even in good times.
Backstabber Romney was rated only a "C" by the CATO Institute.
And that was before he tanked the state through his imposition of socialized medicine.

"As U.S. real output grew 13 percent between 2002 and 2006, Massachusetts trailed at 9 percent.
* Manufacturing employment fell 7 percent nationwide those years, but sank 14 percent under Romney, placing Massachusetts 48th among the states.
* Between fall 2003 and autumn 2006, U.S. job growth averaged 5.4 percent, nearly three times Massachusetts' anemic 1.9 percent pace.
* While 8 million Americans over age 16 found work between 2002 and 2006, the number of employed Massachusetts residents actually declined by 8,500 during those years.
"Massachusetts was the only state to have failed to post any gain in its pool of employed residents," professors Sum and McLaughlin concluded.
In an April 2003 meeting with the Massachusetts congressional delegation in Washington, Romney failed to endorse President Bush's $726 billion tax-cut proposal."
[Cato Institute annual Fiscal Policy Report Card - America's Governors, 2004.]

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Now compare with a Conservative winner:

Alaska House OKs Gas Pipeline Plan for North Slope - July 23, 2008
JUNEAU, Alaska -- Alaska's House of Representatives has approved a company's plan
to pursue a natural gas pipeline that could unlock 4.5 billion cubic feet of gas reserves a day.
Lawmakers in Alaska's House voted to support Gov. Sarah Palin's proposal to award TransCanada Corp.
an exclusive license to pursue federal certification for the 1,715-mile North Slope pipeline.

Is not THAT special. The rest talk (or less)
and Gov. Palin actually did something.

Dictator Fascist Mitt Romney here imposing socialized medicine
HILLARYcare=RomneyCARE-1 (RomneyCARE-2 was Hezb'allah-CARE)
without a single Mass. vote except his, the DNC, and his friends in Utah.

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Across Mass., wait to see doctors grows [because of ROmney's socialized medicine]

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Sen. John Kerry to Don Imus on RomneyCARE=HillaryCARE: "I like this health care bill".

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The Price of RomneyCare The Wall Street Journal July 29, 2008; Page A16
Gearing up for 2009, liberals are eager to claim Massachusetts as a Valhalla of health reform. Their enthusiasm is apparently evidence-proof.

Even Mitt Romney, who should know better, took to these pages recently to proclaim, "Health-care reform is working in Massachusetts." Shortly after Mr. Romney's self-tribute, Governor Deval Patrick wheeled out a new $129 million tax plan to make up for this year's health spending shortfalls. Yet partisans are cheering the cost overruns as a sign of success.

Supporters are exultant because 350,000 people are newly covered since former Governor Romney's parley with Beacon Hill Democrats in 2006; this cuts the state's uninsured rate by about half. That's not the promised "universal" system, but never mind. The ominous news is that only about 18,000 people -- or 5% of the newly insured -- have taken advantage of the "connector," which was supposed to be the plan's free-market innovation linking individuals to private insurers.

Most of this growth in coverage has instead come via a new state entitlement called Commonwealth Care. This provides subsidized insurance to those under 300% of the poverty level, or about $63,000 for a family of four. About 174,000 have joined this low- or no-cost program, a trend that is likely to speed up.

As this public option gets overwhelmed, budget gaskets are blowing everywhere. Mr. Patrick had already bumped up this year's spending to $869 million, $144 million over its original estimate. Liberals duly noted that these tax hikes are necessary because enrollment in Commonwealth Care is much higher than anticipated. But of course more people will have coverage if government gives it to them for free. The problem is that someone has to pay for it.

Thus the extra tab of $129 million, which may need to go higher because it relies on uncertain federal funds from Medicaid. For now, Mr. Patrick wants one-time (yeah, right) charges of $33 million on insurers and $28 million on providers, plus some shuffling of state funds. The balance comes from an estimated $33 million boost in the state's "pay or play" tax: If businesses don't offer "fair and reasonable" insurance to their employees, they get hit.

This is a textbook example of how business taxes evolve into "pay or pay," the first recourse of state-funded health systems. Politicians love levies on business because they disguise the overall bill from voters. But such taxes are merely passed along to workers in the form of reduced take-home pay, since all health costs are part of compensation.

The main reason people are uninsured is because coverage is too expensive. Massachusetts didn't have many options for reforming the way health dollars are laundered in the third-party payment system created by the federal tax code. But it could have helped make insurance cheaper by reforming its private market before defaulting to public programs.

The Bay State has long served up coverage-specific insurance mandates, such as for fertility treatments, which raise costs. Yet in a just-deserts twist, Massachusetts health planners are now reviewing ways to trim mandates because the state is footing more of the bill, even if they didn't care when imposing them on individuals and small business. A state-sponsored study shows that total spending on mandates was $1.32 billion in 2005, or 12% of premiums. The study is devastating despite its pro-mandate slant.

Not that such practical lessons have stopped liberals from joining the Massachusetts parade. They have to gussy up the state's model because the extravagant claim that led to its creation -- that health care will be less expensive if everyone is covered -- is being relentlessly discredited. It's the same claim they want to make when they try to pass a similar plan for the whole country in next year's Congress.

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Romney: “Make all the promises you have to...”

[Moconservative]

Romney hits it right on the head which is why the congress will do exactly the opposite.

Congress always thinks that throwing money at a situation will solve the problem. It never has and never will. It only delays the real solution which is cutting costs and increasing revenues.

[unspun]

http://www.mittromney.com/DEC_2008

Okay, I stand corrected.

As a 'sidebar,' it would have been very unlikely that a CEO such as Romney could have been elected U.S. President, this year. And with his spotty record on social issues and the controversial Massachusetts healcare plan, it would have been very difficult to gain as much turn-out as McCain/Palin, IMHO.

Lord knows. Maybe he can show himself to be more consistent in the next three years, if he should decide to run again.

[GOP_Lady]

I didn’t mean for you to be corrected. :-)

[eclecticEel]

During the primary all he could say was that he “knew how jobs came, and knew how they left” or some other such boilerplate. Now he’s finally figuring out he needs to throw some specifics in there.

[truthguy]

During the campaign I looked at all the various Republican candidates and made my assessments. I frankly found nothing terribly wrong with Mitt Romney. And yet so many on this site seem to think he is the Devil incarnate.

What gives? He may not be the idea conservative but he would have been a lot better than McCain. And if he had won the nomination then he sure as hell would a lot better than Obama. I think he would have done better than McCain and just might have won. I just don't understand some of the hatred for Romney. Some of the posters on this site remind me of the old maid who never marries because she cannot ever find the perfect man. She finds some fault with everyone.

We ARE NEVER going to get the perfect conservative candidate. Let's face facts. If we wait for the perfect conservative we will be electing many Democrats for a very long time. Is that what you knuckle draggers want. A permanent Democratic Majority?

[Mojave]

Gotta save that money for more important things. Like Olympic Games bailouts.

Willard is such a flaming hypocrite.

[Stunned]

Yea, we hate Romney. He may know something about business, economics, government, etc. And he may be smart. But why should we give him the time of day when we’ve got Sarah. Why she’ll probably read up on all this stuff between now and 2012 and will be just as good as Romney. Heck, she already learned about immigration—though that might have been just by listening to McCain. We don’t need no smart people on our side when we’ve got Sarah.

[yongin]

I think McCain did want to win. He was on a political dead watch in August 2007. He had no money and no staff. His allies told him to quit the race and get behind Giuliani. Yet he refused. Then Fred, Mitt, Rudy, and Huckabee all imploded and McCain was the last man standing.

However after seeing the money Hillary and esp. Obama were raking in, the McCain campaign became demoralized. McCain wandered the country aimlessly looking for campaign theme. Mac finally found a campaign them in Palin. Mac wanted to talk about national security and Palin was to discuss energy independence. Then the stock market cash came and those issues were knocked off the table. As result, Mac became unfocused and tried to shift focus away from the economy. Doing so made McCain look out of touch with the American people. That sealed the deal for Obama.

[unspun]

I didn’t mean for you to be corrected. :-)

What I derive on 11/18/2008 is that hearing about Romney's plan -- for seeding about $20B R&D for the entire automotive market, looks a lot less troubling now, than it did then.

Back then, it looked semi-fascist. But now, compared to the Bush-Paulson-Congressional $700+B financial fiat and Barack Obama's neo-Marxism, it appears downright patriotic!

[Lilpug15]

My father has worked for GM for over 30 yrs. as a world class certified mechanic - he believes that the only way for the auto industry to ever get itself back to where it once was is to go bankrupt. They will file for Chap. 11 and that doesn’t mean that everything goes - it provides protection under that business clause. This will let them restructure themselves and start over - they can drastically change their management structure which should have happened long ago and it also provides protection against the exorbanent costs for unions. They need to either get rid of unions or at least get rid of the corruption in them or downsize/restructure as well. Throwing money at something does not work. It’s the same concept of enabling somebody with an addiction. If they don’t hit bottom they will never learn. It doesn’t mean that they can’t change and work back up once they hit bottom but it means that they will fail and fall even harder if lessons are not learned.

So I agree w/ Mitt on this but I don’t trust the guy at all.

[org.whodat]

Great Op Ed by Mitt. I agree fully- as long as we can keep China from buying GM.

With all out crooked bankers running around I worry more about them buying America. But then maybe they have already.