Romney ‘Delighted’ GM is Profitable, Credits Managed Bankruptcy

[ProSense]

Romney ‘Delighted’ GM is Profitable, Credits Managed Bankruptcy

By Emily Friedman

FARMINGTON HILLS, Mich. – Hours after General Motors announced that it earned its highest profit in its storied history last year, Mitt Romney said he is “delighted” at its success and took credit for the managed bankruptcy that helped to rescue the struggling corporation, saying he “recommended [it] from the very beginning.”

“I love the businesses of this state, I love the auto industry. I want to see it thrive and grow,” said Romney, speaking at a luncheon at the Greater Farmington-Livonia Chamber of Commerce. “I’m glad it went through a managed bankruptcy process, which I recommended from the very beginning, to shed unnecessary costs and get its footing again. I’m delighted it’s profitable.”

“In my view, this auto industry can continue to lead the world and must continue to lead the world to keep Detroit with a vibrant and prosperous future,” said Romney.

GM reported today earning $7.6 billion in 2011, a 62 percent increase from 2010. GM and Chrysler received approximately $80 billion in bailout money from the Bush and Obama administrations; each filed for bankruptcy in 2009.

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http://abcnews.go.com/blogs/politics/2012/02/romney-delighted-gm-is-profitable-credits-managed-bankruptcy/

Which Mitt? Two day ago, Mitt was still whining:

Romney condemns auto-industry rescue

By Steve Benen

Looking back over the last three years, there's arguably no better example of a policy Republicans got wrong than the rescue of the American auto industry.

When President Obama launched his ambitious policy in 2009, he was taking a major gamble -- not only with the backbone of American manufacturing, but with his presidency and its ability to use the power of government to repair a private industry facing collapse. As First Read noted at the time, "As the GM bailout goes, so goes the Obama presidency."

We now know the gamble paid off...Had it not been for the Obama administration's policy, these heartening headlines would have been impossible. And yet, Mitt Romney still isn't happy.

In a new Detroit News op-ed, the former Massachusetts governor says he's glad the industry still exists, but proceeds to complain anyway about the way in which Obama rescued GM and Chrysler from an imminent collapse.

Three years ago, in the midst of an economic crisis, a newly elected President Barack Obama stepped in with a bailout for the auto industry. The indisputable good news is that Chrysler and General Motors are still in business. The equally indisputable bad news is that all the defects in President Obama's management of the American economy are evident in what he did.

Instead of doing the right thing and standing up to union bosses, Obama rewarded them.... By the spring of 2009, instead of the free market doing what it does best, we got a major taste of crony capitalism, Obama-style.

It takes a fair amount of chutzpah to face a crisis, get it wrong, then whine about the way in which the other guy got it right.

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http://maddowblog.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2012/02/14/10406236-romney-condemns-auto-industry-rescue

And who can forget Mitt's original NYT op-ed:

Let Detroit Go Bankrupt
http://www.nytimes.com/2008/11/19/opinion/19romney.html