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Dems target Romney, Pawlenty, Gingrich on opposition to auto bailouts
Joining in on the White House victory lap over Chrysler paying back the federal goverment for bailing it out in 2008, the Democratic National Committee released a Web ad this week criticizing Republican presidential hopefuls Mitt Romney, Tim Pawlenty and Newt Gingrich for opposing assisting American car companies in Detroit in 2008.
Detroit-based Chrysler announced this week it was repaying $6.7 billion to the U.S. and Canadian governments six years ahead of schedule, though the Treasury department has said the U.S. won’t likely recover its outstanding $1.9 billion investment in the company.
That did not stop Democrats from taking credit for the turnaround of the company. The new DNC highlights interviews with Pawlenty, who formally announced his 2012 campaign this week, and Romney, who is also all but officially in the race to challenge President Obama.
"There's no question that if you just write a check, that you're going see these companies go out of business ultimately," Romney, the former governor of Massachusetts, says in an interview with CBS in the ad.
"I don't know why, for them, chapter 11, or at least some of pre-structured chapter 11, wouldn't be a viable alternative, rather than the taxpayers bailing them out," Pawlenty continues.
Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, who has also launched a bid for the Republican nomination, is also shown in the ad saying in a Fox News interview that overseeing the auto bailouts showed Obama was the most radical president in U.S. history.
"While Republicans and pundits disagreed, President Obama made the tough choice to grant the American automakers a lifesaving loan," the DNC ad says. "Thousand of jobs were saved. Shuttered plants were reopened. Communities are being restored.
"Detroit Bankrupt. If Republicans were in charge, this would be the headline," the commercial concludes.
