Mitt Romney is trying to do Jedi mind tricks on the country–trying to make us forget everything we remember he has said about the auto bailout. He is now even trying to take credit for Obama’s proposals which he opposed to turn around the auto industry. AP reports:
Campaigning in the backyard of America’s auto industry, Mitt Romney re-ignited the bailout debate by suggesting he deserves “a lot of credit” for the recent successes of the nation’s largest car companies.
That claims comes in spite of his stance that Detroit should have been allowed to go bankrupt.
The presumptive Republican presidential nominee told a Cleveland television station on Monday that President Barack Obama followed his lead when he ushered auto companies through a managed bankruptcy soon after taking office.
“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,” Romney said in an interview inside a Cleveland-area auto parts maker. “So, I’ll take a lot of credit for the fact that this industry has come back.”
Romney has repeatedly argued that Obama ultimately took his advice on the auto industry’s woes of 2008 and 2009. But he went further on Monday by saying he deserves credit for its ultimate turnaround.
The course Romney advocated differed greatly from the one that was ultimately taken. GM and Chrysler went into bankruptcy on the strength of a massive bailout that Romney opposed. Neither Republican President George W. Bush nor Democratic President Barack Obama believed the automakers would have survived without that backup from taxpayers.
Romney opposed taxpayer help.
With the media so often showing a faux objectivity by quoting statements from both parties as if equally valid, regardless of the facts, it is good to see that this report from AP explicitly points out that what Romney is saying now differs substantially from what he said at the time. Catching Romney lying is quite easy to do–just wait for his lips to move. Even before this whopper, Steve Benen was up to Volume XVI of his ongoing chronicles of Romneys lies. Previous lists of Romney lies are available here: Vol. I, II, III, IV, V, VI, VII, VIII, IX, X, XI, XII,XIII, XIV, XV. Prior to this one, David Corn considered Romney’s biggest whopper to be a lie that the government will control over half the economy under Obama. I wonder if this will replace it. The Obama campaign calls this “a new low in dishonesty” and is calling on Romney to have “the courage and integrity” to admit he was wrong.
For those who want to go through the record as to what Romney has really said about the bailout at various times, Jed Lewison gives a good play by play. Steve Benen has more. The bottom line is that Romney opposed Obama’s proposals at the time, and if we had followed Romney’s plans we would not have a recovering auto industry in Detroit today.
Republicans hate Joe Biden’s elevator pitch that Bin Laden is dead and G.M. is alive, but both parts are true, and reasons to reelect Obama.
