Industry News: Former President Bush Stands By His Decision On Auto Bailoutss

[William Maley]

William Maley

Editor/Reporter - CheersandGears.com

February 11, 2012

Former President George W. Bush spoke this week to a gathering of auto dealers. During his speech, Bush defended his decision on bailing out Chrysler and General Motors.

"I'd do it again. I didn't want there to be 21 percent unemployment," Bush told dealers.

Bush told dealers he believed in the free market and in normal conditions, automakers and other businesses should have been allowed to fail.

"If you make a bad decision, you ought to pay," Bush said. "Sometimes circumstances get in the way of philosophy."

In late December 2008, Bush agreed to a $17.4 billion bailout for GM and Chrysler as part of the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program.

Bush avoided talking about the current Republican candidates saying the bailout was a bad idea. Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney has said both Bush and current President Barack Obama were wrong in their decision to do a bailout. Romney said he would have put both companies in a controlled bankruptcy from the start.

Source: The Detroit News

http://www.detroitne...uts-d-do-again-

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[ocnblu]

Spilt milk. Time to look ahead, not behind.

[Drew Dowdell]

Romney said he would have put both companies in a controlled bankruptcy from the start.

in other words, he'd do the same thing, he'd just word it differently.

[Camino LS6]

"Sometimes circumstances get in the way of philosophy."

This is quite possibly the most intelligent thing the man has ever said. If the rest of the politicians would learn this simple lesson, we'd all be better off.

[hyperv6]

It is plain and simple that who ever was in office would have bailed them out. At that time and place it was the only thing that could have been done.

You can call it different things and you can change a few requirements but in the end they would have gotten the money.

The one thing GM did that was good was GW started the wheel turning and but let Bama Admin set the ground rules and set it up the way they wanted. He could have played politics and threw a granade out there for the Bama admin would have had to fall on. Like him or not he did put the country first on this decision. It is well known he made many in his own party mad but the man did the best thing he could do for the companies and the incoming admin. Too bad others don't work this way on both sides.

Now it is up to GM to get this paid off asap. This milk is still spilled as far as GM is concerned. The goverment gave them the mop and it is up to them to mop it up.

[loki]

the status quo..keeping it going, keeps civil unrest down, no matter how ludicrous it is.

[balthazar]

Like him or not he did put the country first on this decision. It is well known he made many in his own party mad but the man did the best thing he could do for the companies and the incoming admin. Too bad others don't work this way on both sides.

Interesting point, but FAIL; he's a Republican!!

[PurdueGuy]

I think the way the auto industry assistance was handled was fine, the real issues are in how the financial industry assistance was handled.

[daves87rs]

Interesting quote...

[hyperv6]

Like him or not he did put the country first on this decision. It is well known he made many in his own party mad but the man did the best thing he could do for the companies and the incoming admin. Too bad others don't work this way on both sides.

Interesting point, but FAIL; he's a Republican!!

The partisan Bull Sh!t is what has gotten our country in this mess. We already have too many people voting for someone for the wrong reasons in both parties. Time for us to vote for people for their own thinking and actions and not because they have a D or an R behind their name. Then once elected hold them accountable for what they do and say.

The next 20 years are going to be ugly in this country.

Edited February 12, 2012 by hyperv6

[hyperv6]

I think the way the auto industry assistance was handled was fine, the real issues are in how the financial industry assistance was handled.

I too feel the banks were given a free ride.

Just this week they the present admin tried to make it look like they did a good thing on the Forclosures but it really means little. The goverment is the one who got the forclosure problems started and Freddie and Fannie were Ground Zero. Also we had people out there with no hope of making the payments on most of these homes and they expect those of us who can make our payments to bail them out. I am sorry it is time to hold people accoutable for their actions in and out of goverment. This weeks action was all smoke and mirros as the problem is much greater than a 25 billiond dollar issue.

As for the way the auto bail out was done. I still think the Unions got too much payback for their political donations to the Dems. I feel they should have a part of the pie but I think they were give too much of the pie. You can't have the inmates running the psych ward. There are too many in the unions that want to bleed the companies till they are no more. They were part of the problem to start with.

Edited February 12, 2012 by hyperv6

[Drew Dowdell]

I think the way the auto industry assistance was handled was fine, the real issues are in how the financial industry assistance was handled.

this.

[Drew Dowdell]

I think the way the auto industry assistance was handled was fine, the real issues are in how the financial industry assistance was handled.

I too feel the banks were given a free ride.

Just this week they the present admin tried to make it look like they did a good thing on the Forclosures but it really means little. The goverment is the one who got the forclosure problems started and Freddie and Fannie were Ground Zero. Also we had people out there with no hope of making the payments on most of these homes and they expect those of us who can make our payments to bail them out. I am sorry it is time to hold people accoutable for their actions in and out of goverment. This weeks action was all smoke and mirros as the problem is much greater than a 25 billiond dollar issue.

Well... no.... Fannie and Freddie were not ground zero. The sub-prime mortgage mess started with the private investment companies long before F&F got involved. It was the deregulation of the banks that allowed the private mortgage companies to start offering 125% loan to value loans and then repackage them on the equities market. F&F were actually forbidden from doing this. They were limited to 80% - 90% LTV. F&F lobbied congress hard to get that rule lifted because they were getting shut out of the hot real estate market at the time. Buy the time the rule was lifted, the private banks had already been in the game about 7 years.

Some of the safest mortgages out there are the F&F back mortgages made in these intervening years because of the requirements they put on the homeowner.

I know it is popular to blame F&F for the sub-prime mess, but the timeline simply doesn't support that conclusion. Yeah they tried to profit from the situation on the ground, but they were about 7 years late... so in terms of "ground zero", they are just the tacky tourist shop selling "I visited ground zero" t-shirts 7 years after the towers fell.

[hyperv6]

Maybe Ground Zero was a poor term but it all leads back to the goverment forcing loans to those who could not afford them. It happened under Clinton and Bush. The fact is Freddie and Fannie were part of the goverment and contrubuted to the over all issues too. The Goverment wants to regulate the banks and they can not even handle their own.

The bottom line is both sides are screwing America for money and power and expect the rest of us to pick up the tab.

[Drew Dowdell]

uh, the government forced no one to take a loan.

Again, Fannie and Freddie had lending requirements that the private banks did not. They were still more restrictive than private banks even after they got the regulations lifted. I'm not saying they were innocent, but they certainly were not the cause.

Now Today, they are being used as vehicles to bail out the banks. The banks are dumping their toxic mortgages on F&F with the government's encouragement.

[Camino LS6]

Incestuous, all of it.

[thedriver]

This was one of only two actions taken by his administration I can actually support. The other was going back to the moon. Everything else was junk. The current administration has made only one decision I can really support, and that is expansion of Amtrak. Once again the rest is junk. Its not the party, it's the people in power...

[Camino LS6]

This was one of only two actions taken by his administration I can actually support. The other was going back to the moon. Everything else was junk. The current administration has made only one decision I can really support, and that is expansion of Amtrak. Once again the rest is junk. Its not the party, it's the people in power...

Indeed.

[G. David Felt]

Over all regardless if you are a demobot or RepubliRat, The TARP dollars had to be done for the well being of this country. Anyone who wants to blame Bush or Obama, need to wake up to the fact that our current Depression would have been much worse if we did not bail out the financial industry and the auto industry.

The time now is to cut out the waste and stop being a world police and focus on rebuilding our country as we pay off our Debt.

[PurdueGuy]

Over all regardless if you are a demobot or RepubliRat, The TARP dollars had to be done for the well being of this country. Anyone who wants to blame Bush or Obama, need to wake up to the fact that our current Depression would have been much worse if we did not bail out the financial industry and the auto industry.

The time now is to cut out the waste and stop being a world police and focus on rebuilding our country as we pay off our Debt.

I'm not against there having been a financial bailout, but the way it was done was beyond patheticly sloppy & irresponsible.

[balthazar]

"beyond patheticly sloppy & irresponsible" = Big Gov't, to a T.

[Camino LS6]

"Demobot" and "Republirat"

Kudos for these !