Bush Administration Praised Closure Of Auto Plant That Ryan Now Blames On Obama
By Zack Beauchamp
Rep. Paul Ryan (R-WI) claimed during his convention speech Wednesday that President Obama is responsible for the closure of a GM plant in Janesville, Wisconsin. However, as many media outlets have noted, GM announced plans to close the plant in June ’08 — long before Obama was even elected — and it ceased major operations in December of that year.
For proof, just ask one of the more prominent supporters of the Janesville plant shutdown — the George W. Bush Administration. After all, the closure was part of a broader GM restructuring initiative that the then-President supported. White House Press Secretary Dana Perino even praised it as evidence of GM “adapting well:”
The White House called the announcement a sign that the auto giant was “adapting well” to market shifts.
“It’s a sign that Detroit continues to adapt and evolve and address the change in consumer tastes and attitudes. And I think that they’re adapting well,” spokeswoman Dana Perino said.
“And they’ll make these changes, and hopefully be able to pull themselves up out of what has been a rough several years,” she said. …
GM plans to shutter production at its Toluca, Mexico, pickup truck at the end of the year and its Oshawa, Canada plant will be closed in 2009. Plants in Moraine, Ohio and Janesville, Wisconsin, are slated for closure in 2010 “or sooner if market demand dictates,” GM said.
In keeping with the rest of the night’s theme of ignoring and whitewashing the Bush Administration’s disastrous record, Ryan failed to mention this inconvenient history.
http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2012/08/30/776711/bush-administration-gm-ryan/
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Here's the letter with Ryan's June 2008 signature acknowledging the closing (pdf via house.gov)
Signed, June 3, 2008
http://paulryan.house.gov/uploadedfiles/ltr_gm_060308.pdf
Technically, the Ryan line is that the President failed to "keep it open".
Technically, the plant had a hundred workers paid after the main line closed Dec 23, 2008, to keep a small line open to fill out a truck order until April 2009.
However, the basic fact that the weasel would have you not know is that the plant closing was accelerated by the Republican President who applauded GM for being "adaptable" in closing that and other plants. The plant was slated to close in 2010 (see letter below) but was accelerated and closed in 2008 except for an essentially inconsequential amount of work for a few months.
[font size = "+1"]Fact: [/font]It was all decided and finalized by time Obama took office.
