The auto industry bailout continues to fuel a hot stove league, more than three years after Washington wrote Detroit its first checks. In the Michigan primary, however, the debate is as much over who gets the credit as whether the bailout was a good idea.
Detroit skyline (Photo credit: Bernt Rostad)
The stew has a variety of ingredients, ranging from Mitt Romney and President George W. Bush to President Barack Obama and the UAW. It all brings to mind the old saying: "Success has many fathers, but failure is an orphan."
Over at Changing Gears, we're asking people to vote in our auto bailout poll, and help us figure out who was most instrumental. As Michiganians prepare to vote on Tuesday, here is a look at the people and institutions who are all claiming to have played a role.
Mitt Romney: he brought up the idea of a managed bankruptcy in his 2008 New York Times op-ed, Let Detroit Go Bankrupt.
At the time, that was a pretty shocking idea, since Congress was still deliberating whether to fund a bailout. But, in a sense, that's what happened down the road.
George W. Bush: with his administration about to end, the Republican president provided the first "bridge loan" so that General Motors and Chrysler could stay in business. By then, Ford had decided not to accept federal money.
Barack Obama: his Democratic administration did the heavy lifting on the auto companies' restructuring, negotiating with Fiat to take management control, pushing the companies to get more serious about their overhauls, finally shepherding GM and Chrysler in and out of bankruptcy court.
The UAW: concessions from the union were required so that the entire restructuring package could come together. Had the union resisted, GM and Chrysler could have spent much longer in bankruptcy, and things might have turned out more dire for union members.
Are there others who should get credit for the auto bailout? Who do you think played the most important role?
