Romney referenced the editorial
after Obama said that if he had taken Romney's advice on not bailing out
Chrysler and GM, "we'd be buying cars from China instead of selling
cars to China."
Romney countered that Obama was
mischaracterizing his plan. He said he'd written that the auto industry
could get "government help and government guarantees" in exchange for
restructuring in bankruptcy. Obama interrupted, saying it wasn't true
that Romney said the companies could get government help.
"You can take a look at the op-ed," Romney replied.
In the editorial, Romney said
that "if General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their
chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the American
automotive industry goodbye." Romney argued that the auto companies
should seek a privately financed managed bankruptcy, with the government
providing guarantees to their loans.
A few months later, President
Obama extended tens of billions of dollars in government loans to the
auto industry in exchange for a restructuring in bankruptcy. The
government is expected to lose $20 billion on the deal, but some
independent analysts have said the companies would have collapsed
without the aid, and that private loans were not available at the time
due to the global credit crunch.
The Obama campaign has repeatedly
flagged Romney's op-ed while campaigning in the battleground state of
Ohio, which could end up deciding this election and where one in eight
jobs is connected to the auto industry. Romney did not write the
headline of the op-ed, but has said he didn't have a problem with it.
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