Report: Romney blames Obama for GM layoffs

Filed under: Government/Legal, Hirings/Firings/Layoffs, Plants/Manufacturing, Chrysler, GM, Earnings/Financials

"The president is going to go after me. I'll go after him." That pretty much sums up every presidential race in recent memory, where it seems attacking the opposing side is just as important as proving your own personal worth. And the 2012 U.S. presidential election, unsurprisingly, is shaping up much the same.

The words above came from former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, who is in the running for the Republican nomination. According to a Romney interview conducted by Fox News, President Obama is responsible for closing factories and laying off workers during the government-backed bankruptcies of Chrysler and General Motors. Detractors would argue that factory closings and a shrinking workforce were unavoidable at the automakers and that the plans were effectively put in motion on former President George Bush's watch.

This new line of reasoning from Romney comes as he himself is under attack for his role in Bain Capital, a highly profitable Boston-based private equity firm. Depending on who you're asking, Bain was either a creator of jobs and a savior of broken companies or a group of rich investors whose sole goal was to make money at the expense of everything else. Either way, there's no denying that many facilities were closed and many jobs were lost under the ownership of Bain Capital.

As for President Obama's reaction, The Detroit News quotes Michigan spokesman for the Obama campaign, Clark Pettig, as saying:

"We know what Mitt Romney did when 1.4 million jobs were on the line - he opposed the rescue loan the president extended to avoid liquidation, and made clear he would let Detroit go bankrupt. It's no wonder he did that, because when he was a corporate buyout specialist, he laid off thousands of workers, closed factories and outsourced jobs solely in order to create profits for himself and his partners."

Welcome to election season, folks.

Romney blames Obama for GM layoffs originally appeared on Autoblog on Tue, 20 Dec 2011 15:29:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Source: http://www.autoblog.com/2011/12/20/romney-blames-obama-for-gm-layoffs/

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