You’d be hard-pressed to find any similarities between the current and the former presidents of the United States. Yet, Barack Obama and George W. Bush actually do have one thing in common: they both agree that bailing out the bankrupt U.S. car industry was the right thing to do.
Bush, whose extension of bridge loans to U.S. automakers was one of the last decisions before he left office, gave the closing address to the annual National Automobile Dealers Association (NADA) convention.
The former President said Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke warned him that, unless the administration took drastic measures, a new depression was imminent.
Although he believes that the government should not interfere with the marketplace and that companies have to pay for their mistakes, the economic crisis forced him to give the U.S. car industry $25 billion in emergency aid in December 2008. His successor in the White House gave them another US$60 billion in early 2009.
“Sometimes circumstances get in the way of philosophy”, Bush said, adding that he had no regrets about his decision. In fact, he stressed that, if necessary, “I would make the same decision again.”
“The immediate bankruptcy of Chrysler and GM could cost more than a million jobs, decrease tax revenues by $150 billion and set back America’s Gross Domestic Product by hundreds of billions of dollars,” said Bush.
This statement echoes Obama’s claim that using the taxpayers’ money to bailout companies like GM and Chrysler was the right thing to do.
“I knew this wasn’t a popular decision. But it was the right one,” Obama said in 2010. “GM and Chrysler were on the brink of collapse. The rapid dissolution of these companies — followed by the certain failure of many auto parts makers, car dealers and other smaller businesses — would have dealt a crippling blow to our already suffering economy.”
Story References: Freep
