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This thread is about American jobs and the automotive industry, and it can be argued that Obama saved America's automotive industry.
"The former CEO of the super-sized used car dealership CarMax, Austin Ligon, said (Obama's) decisive action to restructure General Motors and Chrysler "helped prevent a domino effect that would have taken down everything in the auto industry, from the factories that manufactured auto parts to the dealers who sold the cars." Did President Obama save the auto industry? | PolitiFact
Obama screwed the shareholders of GM (in violation of law) in favor of his Union pals.
From your first link:
Quote:
Barack Obama, however, cannot claim full credit for this outcome. According to several experts, he needs to share it with his predecessor, President George W. Bush. Dr. James Rubenstein at Miami University co-wrote a post-bankruptcy assessment for the Federal Reserve Bank of Chicago. Rubenstein said no one should overlook the importance of Bush’s decision to use $17.6 billion in TARP money in December 2008 to keep General Motors and Chrysler afloat.
"The Bush Administration provided short-term bridge loans," Rubenstein said. "That allowed the Obama Administration to take a couple of months to assess the situation."
Aaron Bragman, the lead American automotive analyst for the financial forecasting group IHS Automotive, echoed the point. "The Bush administration is the one that actually acted to save them from an uncontrolled bankruptcy and shutdown," Bragman said. "The Obama administration's role was to fix them."
This is pure bull. Can you cite some credible sources? Skilled employees have been laid off, replaced by foreign workers, who had to be trained by those they were replacing!
Did you read why they opposed it? A tax "surcharge" on the "wealthy" and it was too costly. Ben Nelson -D, and Joe Lieberman -D, also opposed it. The Democrats then killed a competing GOP infrastructure bill that would have been paid for by cuts in other unspent funding.
This bill would have increased taxes on business. The Republicans rejected it on that basis. Job killing taxes on businesses are not the right way to fund infrastructure projects, especially during times of high unemployment. The Republicans objected to Sanders method of funding the proposal, and dictating tax policy.
While "high speed rail" sounds nice, the fact of the matter is that passenger rail was driven out of business many years ago by air travel, and that was long before we had jumbo jets. Air travel provides better and faster transportation, and is far safer than rail. It also requires no right-of-way (purchase of land ...or the taking of land ...from private individuals).
Rail service has been a non-profit making enterprise for decades. Amtrak is subsidized by the government. Why do we think high-speed rail would be profitable? Who would it benefit? Why take a train when you can fly? If high-speed rail was thought to be a money making project, the railroads, not the government, would be building it.
We don't want to fund "make work" projects.
Nice try.
Donald Trumps infrastructure plan gives developers and Wall Street investors tax credits. And for each $1 they spend repairing our infrastructure they are given .82 cents of taxpayer money. And after the infrastructure is repaired the developers and Wall Street investors will personally own the roads and bridges they repaired, and then they will be able charge tolls for use of the roads and bridges.
I know, seriously, it's really sad how desperate the Trumpets are to give credit to their Dear Leader for things that have nothing to do with him. From your first link:
"The two companies announced in 2016 that they're planning a $1.6 billion plant that will employ 4,000 people and North Carolina and Alabama are the finalists for the project."
There were plenty of new factories announced and opened while Obama was president, funny how the Trumpets were not giving Obama credit for those.
And, why didn't they happen until Trump was President then? Planned is one thing. Actuality is another. Many things are planned years in advance, waiting for the right circumstances to put those pans into action.
If Obama was so great, why didn't these things happen during his administration? I'll give you one reason: High taxes.
They DID happen under his administration. You only aren't aware of them because you didn't pay attention. I will repeat a list I posted back in August:
All of the following announcements were made between March 2014 and September 2016, when a certain president whose last name began with an "O" was in office. Interesting the Trump cultists weren't writing "MAGA" when these things were announced.
This is also just a fraction of what was going on during that time. I only collected the larger announcements.
Apologies that some of these are broken links (I started collecting these a while ago). If you don't believe any particular headline linked here I will be happy to find a replacement. I've actually been doing this since about 2003.
And the following multi-billion-dollar ethane cracker plant in Pennsylvania was first talked about, conceived of, and given the final go-ahead while Obama was in office.
Yesterday MDN was one of the first to bring you the fantastic news that Shell has decided to move forward with building their multi-billion dollar ethane cracker plant (see Breaking: Shell Pulls the Trigger, PA Ethane Cracker is a Go!). Shell mentioned their positive final investment decision (FID) as part of a larger, wide-ranging announcement on their plans for the next few years and beyond. They were slow off the mark, but Shell finally issued a separate press release about the FID for the Monaca, PA ethane cracker plant complex. As usually happens with a story this big, more details have come out after the initial announcement. For example: Shell’s initial estimate for the cost of the project, more than four years ago, was “$2-$3 billion.” Now? They won’t say. But some news sources are reporting it will be closer to a $6 billion investment. One even goes as high as $11 billion! ...
Last edited by James Bond 007; 01-10-2018 at 07:23 AM..
But republicans want to spin and then ignore the above. And then republicans want to give Trump credit for a foreign automaker building a plant in America and creating 4,000 jobs (when plans for the plant were in the making while Obama was in office.)
planned to be built in America in 2016 (Obama was president in 2016.) Psst. Rumor has it that the Japanese waited for Alabama to turn blue, too, before choosing Alabama.
Your second source. States can do this. We are not dependent on mana from heaven (sic...the federal government) for our every need.
Wow, 5000 New manufacturing jobs! Out of the 250,000 or so created last month? Yuge!
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