Ford Puts $128 Million More Into Ohio Auto Plant: Didn't GOP Job Killers Romney and Kasich Want The Industry To Die?

Ohio Gov. John Kasich Thumbed The Automakers

By DON POTTS

BELLWETHER CONTRIBUTOR

CINCINNATI (TDB) --  Ohio's Republican Gov. John Kasich continues his unearned Victory Tour, but all he's really doing is hitching a ride.  He's showing up when automakers invest in their plants.  Nevermind that Kasich favored allowing the industry to collapse.  On Tuesday, Ford Motor Co. announced it will invest $128 million to retool the Avon Lake Assembly Plant in Lorain County. The investment will keep the plant open and protects 1,900 Ohio jobs.  Ford’s commitment follows on the heels of similar investments this year by General Motors and Chrysler in their Ohio operations.  In May, GM announced it will spend $260 million and hire up to 400 workers at their Powertrain plant in Toledo.  Last month Chrysler announced a massive $1.7 billion investment at their Toledo Jeep Plant that will add 1,100 new jobs to the Ohio economy.  Not too shabby for an industry that was on the brink of collapse in 2008 and, despite the best efforts of the GOP to kill it, was only saved by President Obama and Congressional Democrats pushing through a loan package that saved thousands of jobs and enabled GM and Chrysler to keep the lights on and return to profitability.

Kasich was front and center at each of these announcements.  Ironic as he strongly opposed the bailouts but has no problem showing up for events heralding its success.
  No risk, all reward.  Kasich can’t acknowledge this fact so, in a bit of revisionist history, he pretends it never happened.  The new position:  "What's done is done," He adds:  "We have a strengthening auto industry in Ohio, and I am very pleased about it. I am pleased for the families of workers who have jobs." (Translation:  I hated the bailout of the auto companies but it’s working and my state is reaping the benefits.  To say anything to the contrary now would make me look like a tool.  Nothing to see here, move along.) 

However, Kasich isn’t the biggest hypocrite of the bunch.  That title belongs to GOP Presidential candidate Mitt Romney.  Mitt, a Michigan native and the son of a guy who actually RAN American Motors  believes we should have “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt”.  Does Mitt still believe this?  As with everything else its hard to tell as we are always playing the game of “Multiple Choice Mitt”.  Maybe Mitt was having a flashback to his days at Bain Capital.  As the LA Times reported:  “Bain expanded many of the companies it acquired. But like other leveraged-buyout firms, Romney and his team also maximized returns by firing workers, seeking government subsidies, and flipping companies quickly for large profits. Sometimes Bain investors gained even when companies slid into bankruptcy.” Hey Mitt, please tell us about the government subsidies...

Obama deserves credit for saving U.S. auto jobs and the industry.  Ford did not take a federal bailout, but the company understood that the survival of its competitors was essential to its existence.  As Ford CEO Alan Mulally said in an interview:  “if GM and Chrysler would have gone into freefall bankruptcy, they would have taken the supply base down and taken the industry down plus maybe turned the U.S. recession into a depression. So I think we did the right thing by testifying on their behalf and I think that the government did the right thing for that critical industry at that time to step in and help.”

It is distasteful to see Governor Kasich take a victory tour for something he opposed.  Yet I would rather see him do this than focus on his job killing agenda and laser focus on hurting public employees.

[UPDATE 1:44 p.m. -- Ford CEO Mullally says the auto industry bailout for GM and
Chrysler was the right thing to do.  You can see it around the 1:40 mark in this YouTube clip from July 7, 2011.]