In the Howard Dean moment of 2012, former Michigan governor Jennifer Granholm ranted the virtues of President Obama’s auto bailout. In fact, some web sites are calling it a “podium explosion”. We’ll admit, we were so distracted by the off the wall ranting that we almost missed her claim that the bailout saved 9,000 jobs in Colorado. She further rattled off the number of jobs saved in each swing state. But, it left us scratching our heads – where did she get these numbers?
Unfortunately, there is no way to quantify jobs “saved” as was discussed around 2009, but we uncovered an interesting statistic from 2010 in Colorado’s version of the Bureau of Labor Statistics – that the industry is projected to shrink over the next 10 years. Even assuming that Granholm’s number was accurate (there’s no way to prove or disprove, which is convenient), the Obama administration is doubling down on an industry that’s still projected to shrink in our area.
Using the auto bailout as a measure of success, ultimately, will prove unwise for the Obama/Biden team. As Investor’s Business Daily reported in April:
“The Obama camp can’t stop clucking about how he saved GM and the car industry. But if the GM bailout is such a success story, why can’t it pay back its debt to taxpayers? The president’s new campaign video narrated by actor Tom Hanks claims GM has “repaid” its loans. But in a revelation by the special inspector general monitoring the TARP bailout program, GM and GMAC together still owe the biggest share of the remaining $119 billion TARP debt. … GM is merely paying the government back with government money, not money GM is earning selling cars, as the administration has claimed.”
So, let’s get this straight. Obama doubled down on the green energy industry, which has proved to be an epic boondoggle and now, he’s touting his success with the auto bailout that simply allows GM to repay government loans…with different government loans? Does our President even understand what economic success actually looks like?