Republican predictions about the failure of the Obama administration's auto-industry policy keep looking worse.
Auto sales are growing so fast that Detroit can barely keep up.
Three years after the U.S. auto industry nearly collapsed, sales of cars and trucks are surging. Sales could exceed 14 million this year, above last year's 12.8 million.
The result: Carmakers are adding shifts and hiring thousands of workers around the country. Carmakers and parts companies added more than 38,000 jobs last year, reaching a total of 717,000. And automakers have announced plans to add another 13,000 this year, mostly on night shifts.
The new "problem" facing the American auto industry is one the Big Three haven't seen in a while: the companies are doing so well, production is straining the industry's existing factory network.
Obviously, this isn't what Mitt Romney expected when he started making predictions about Obama's policy in 2009. At the time, Mr. "Let Detroit Go Bankrupt" was so certain Obama's policy would fail, he said Americans could "kiss the American automotive industry goodbye" if the administration's policy was implemented. Indeed, at the time, Romney called the White House plan "tragic" and "a very sad circumstance for this country." He wrote an April 2009 piece in which he said Obama's plan "would make GM the living dead."
That's a long way from "Auto sales are growing so fast that Detroit can barely keep up."
Romney's critics aren't going to let this go, and it increasingly appears that the former governor's misjudgment on the industry will be a central focus of the 2012 race. AFSCME unveiled this new ad today, which will be aired in Ohio in advance of the Republican primary. "Romney would have turned his back on us — in the depths of the recession," the ad says. "But he supported giving the banks billions in bailouts? That's Mitt's world. Why would we want to live in it?"
Incidentally, Romney appeared on "Fox News Sunday" yesterday, still insisting he was right in 2009, despite all evidence to the contrary. Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder (R), who backs Romney despite their difference of opinion on Obama's rescue policy, added over the weekend, "[I]t's history, and the important part is it was successful, we're moving along, creating jobs."
Or to translate, "There's no point in dwelling on one of Obama's most important success stories."
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I am afraid however that $5 a gallon gas will put a crimp in the sales.
It is so messed up when I hear the news reports about speculators driving up the price of oil. Therin lies the problem . Speculation , sometimes nothing to do with supply. We all know that it has been a warm winter so there should be a surplus.
The speculators found to be behind the rise in the price of oil last time around were the Koch Brothers. It would hardly surprise me if this were not a repeat performance.
Would they try and make Obama look bad by speculating? (be funny if something cut lose and gas fell dramatically just as they started reaching their limit) Margin call ala Trading Places?
"Republican predictions about the failure of the Obama administration's..."
It doesn't matter if Barack Obama walked on water, the GOP is so fixated on getting him out of office and obstructing everything he tries to do while in office - they're schizophrenic! It's not as though they have real plans except for more plundering and pillaging of the nation for their own avarice, it's just to get HIM out of office!! Sad, really sad how WE as a nation have devolved!
As I have remarked frequently, if Obama found a sure cure for cancer, the Fox News/Limbaugh response would be "Obama throws oncologists out of work."
How hard is it to take a "true false" test and get every single answer wrong and still convince people to vote for you?
Bingo!! Enjoy your posts!!!
Thanks!
The irony is that with increased vehicle sales, it has increased fuel demand contributing to the rise in fuel prices. Back in 2009, fewer folks could afford new vehicles creating a demand shortage resulting in cheaper fuel prices.
yah.....I'd research that data and check it's source.....speculation or "Feeding frenzie" causes suppliers to spot reserve inventory futures. Which puts a false pressure on production for fear of not making delivery date. In most cases the sales never finalizes until after the frenzie. Basically, I hoard and cause a scare, lock my sale price in and dont pick up my product till the price is high...now I make a profit on the difference. I get 10 millionaires to front me cash and I buy fuel I don't need, suppliers freak out, buyers freak out and run around the room yelling at the supplier...prices go up...when they get high enough....I turn around and sell on the futures market, dump the crude i never needed and pay myself a nice comission and make my investors a ton of change. Natural demand and mother nature (cold weather use is up) (summer travel use is up). New cars are more efficient and should not have an effect as most are mid-size to compact models. (my joe blow view..research it for your self though) of course other factors play a role in fuel prices that shuoldn't...but they do.
Demand is down, but a few handy refinery closings easily compensate for that.
The new cars being sold are much better on mileage than what they are replacing.
Mittens Robme is just mad that Obama did not let Detroit go into bankruptcy so he could buy it.
The final two left in the Republican primary race are proof of how far the GOP has fallen thanks to Tea Party agitation. Rick Santorum is an unelectable extremist eager to bash JFK and lecture Americans on the "dangers of contraception." Mitt Romney is a Swiss bank account elitist who likes to fire people and has no ability to connect with ordinary Americans. Worse, Romney keeps betting against America and its workers with his reckless and wrongheaded assaults on the American auto industry. I know; Mitt's favorite pastime is shipping jobs overseas. http://www.sunstateactivist.org
The Right has an answer they are bruiting about this already: The improvement is illusory because Obama's gubmint it propping the car companies up by buying huge numbers of fleet vehicles to keep the Unions happy and to pay them off for their support. Plus if Obama is re-elected he intends to shut off all the oil he can to force consumers to go to electric cars thus propping up the Unions for his second term.
In The Land of the Tin-Hoil Hat Folk this makes sense.
Right. Republicans would rather not dwell on one of Obama's greatest success stories since inheriting a country in economic shambles from them. A country they did everything in their power, while IN power, to destroy. Ironic, is it not, that the one place in the country where Romney shouldn't need his secret service detail at all, his own home state, is the one place he may actually need it most.
How many jobs have they "created"? Their main platform has been what has worked in the past, so called "hot button" issues of abortion, birth control, race and their view of equality as a zero-sum game. I notice no one speaks about the prohibitively expensive wars of aggression we've been involved in for over a decade. I'm just waiting for the "willie horton" ads to appear.
So we should ignore President Obama's success in restoring the auto companies, but pay attention to you, Mr. Romney as you tell us your recollections of an even that occurred before you were born? Got it.
Well these are the same guys who claimed less regulation on free market and lower taxes on the wealthy would be a great success. We all know how that worked out. They also claimed Clinton's policies would be a disaster. Wrong again. They also claimed bailing out the auto industry would fail, need I say it...wrong again.
I wouldn't vote for these guys if the goal is to make the economy better, they don't seem to know what they are talking about.