One more reason to despise the southern senators – the Dixie Dumbells – who were eager to see General Motors and Chrysler bite the dust …
GM has surpassed Toyota and Volkswagen to reclaim the crown of world’s largest automaker with global sales of 9.03 million vehicles in 2011.
That was 11 percent higher than Volkswagen, which last week reported 2011 global sales of 8.16 million. Toyota has not yet reported its final 2011 sales, but last month the Japanese automaker estimated it sold 7.9 million vehicles globally last year.
Toyota’s sales were constrained by production cuts caused by the March 11, 2011, earthquake and tsunami in northeast Japan, and later in the year by flooding in Thailand.
GM’s 2011 sales rose 7.6 percent from 2011. Sales in the U.S. led the way for Chevrolet with total vehicle sales of 1,775,812, up more than 13 percent. China posted record sales of 595,068, up 9.5 percent from the previous year.
So, let me get this straight: The company that was considered a hopeless case, not worthy of emergency assistance loans from the feds, an automaker which one Southerner on Capitol Hill said should be written off because federal bridge loans would be “like putting a tourniquet on a dead man” – that same company is now the largest, most successful automaker in the world?
And they did all this by going through a structured bankruptcy process with lightning speed and paid back their loans years ahead of time? Really?
As I’ve said before, I’m still waiting for the apologies from so-called statesmen in the Senate such as Richard Shelby of Alabama and Bob Corker of Tennessee.
What about an apology from Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney who both said they were against government assistance to the auto companies, at their debate at Oakland University? They were both in favor of a "private sector solution".
That's the difference between being a candidate and being an actual leader in power. President Obama did not have the luxury of waxing poetic about private sector solutions because there were none. The only thing available to save millions of jobs was a last ditch, hail Mary pass in form of a government bailout – and it worked.
Charity begins at home fellas. If the government can spend 2 trillion dollars invading and rebuilding countries abroad, for no reason, I see no reason for the government not to help save a couple of million American families from unemployment.