After Romney surrogate Ed Gillespie appeared on Fox News Sunday and desperately attempted to defend Mitt Romney's position on the auto bailout, former Obama car czar followed his appearance and took apart the Romney campaign's arguments that there was any private investment to be found to save the auto industry.
Obama’s Car Czar Bashes Romney’s Auto Rescue Plan:
On Fox News Sunday, former Obama adviser and car czar Steven Rattner disputed Mitt Romney’s claim that Washington followed his advice on how to handle the auto industry rescue through a managed bankruptcy, calling the claim “completely false.”
Rattner’s argument is that Mitt Romney opposed government aid to the flailing companies and that aid was crucial to saving them. Rattner argued that there was no private money available at the time to prop up the companies, necessitating government help.
Transcript via Fox:
WALLACE: All right. I'm being unfair because I didn't realize we only have a minute left. But I do want to ask you. As the former car czar you heard the discussion with Ed Gillespie about the auto bailout. He says -- Romney says that Washington basically followed his advice in a managed bankruptcy, true or false?
RATTNER: Completely false. And what Ed Gillespie said was completely false. The fact is there was no private capital available for these companies. And not only did President Obama recognize that, President Bush recognized that. Remember that the first $17 billion that went in to General Motors and Chrysler was put in by President Bush because he and Hank Paulson, his secretary of the treasury, recognized that there was no private capital. There was no private capital. That's not a hypothetical. That is a fact.
I was there. President Bush was there. It would have been government money or nothing.
And if it would have been nothing, as you said but it worse than what you said, the companies would have run out of money, they would have closed their doors, they would have liquidated, and they would have laid off hundreds of thousands of workers. That is a fact.
