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BBC MUNDO RADIO
Obama Touts Car Revival as He Is Dogged by a Slowdown
President Obama drives a Chevy Volt at a tour of a General Motors plant.
By JACKIE CALMES
Published: July 30, 2010
DETROIT — President Obama came here on Friday to tout an economic success story, but instead got a lesson in how hard it is going to be to turn around the perception and the reality that the recovery is sputtering.
Mr. Obama was fired-up at Chrysler and General Motors plants, where he hawked the good news that the automakers have returned to profitability after their taxpayer bailout a year ago. But he was followed by the news that economic growth had faded in the second quarter, giving more credence to the view that the recovery was sputtering and that joblessness was likely to remain high for some time.
The boost from his two-year stimulus package is fading, and Republicans have pushed hard to convince many voters that the tax cuts and spending did not work in the first place — a contention that many economists dispute. Republicans have blocked the president’s initiatives for additional aid to states and the unemployed, but the slowdown is certain to embolden them in arguing against letting the Bush income tax cuts for the wealthiest taxpayers expire after this year.
While the chairman of the Federal Reserve, Ben S. Bernanke, said last week that the central bank might take further actions to stimulate growth, the government may be able to do little more, given the substantial debt that the nation has accumulated. Meanwhile, business and consumer confidence could suffer, at a time when investment and household spending are needed to rev the economy to the point where it can create jobs to replace the more than eight million that have been lost since 2007.
So, even as Mr. Obama is trying to draw the public’s attention to a policy success, he got a fresh reminder of the problem he faces in restoring sustained growth after the worst recession since the Depression. And the electorate was reminded as well, just as voters’ views are starting to harden as November nears.
In Detroit, Mr. Obama accentuated the positive, and got a rousing reception from autoworkers whose jobs were so recently in jeopardy. He said the economy had now been growing for a full year after shrinking about 6 percent a quarter when he took office, and told an estimated 1,500 union workers at a Chrysler plant that they had “vindicated” his belief that the widely unpopular bailout would work.
The president — showing an energy reminiscent of his campaign rallies — brought the workers to their feet, applauding and cheering, when he concluded in a rising voice: “Don’t bet against the American worker, don’t bet against the American people. We’ve got more work to do. It’s going to take time to get where we want to be. I have confidence in the American worker. I have confidence in this economy.”
The administration is planning to make much of the success of G.M. and Chrysler in the run-up to the midterm elections, claiming that the government’s intervention saved a million jobs. The president travels next week to a Chicago plant for Ford, which did not accept bailout money but whose executives have acknowledged indirect benefits since the rescue helped keep the network of auto supply companies intact.
But the government report early Friday that the country’s gross domestic product slowed to 2.4 percent in the second quarter from a revised 3.7 percent in the first is likely to complicate matters substantively and politically for Mr. Obama and the Democratic Party.
Arriving at the Chrysler plant, however, Mr. Obama and the workers got another bit of good news with the announcement by the chief executive, Sergio Marchionne, that a separate assembly plant that was scheduled to close in 2012 would stay open and add 900 jobs on a second shift, with 500 more jobs for suppliers.
Mr. Obama recalled that a year ago, with G.M. and Chrysler “on the brink of liquidation,” he could have provided a bailout without strings attached or given no help at all. That is what the “leaders of the ‘just say no’ crowd in Washington” wanted, he added, though polls showed that many Americans, already fatigued by the bailout, were also willing to say no to the auto companies.
“I refused to let that happen so we came up with a third way,” Mr. Obama said, and administration officials forced the companies and unions, in exchange for $60 billion, to overhaul their practices and required sacrifices from all parties — workers, management, suppliers, dealers, retirees and shareholders.
Skeptics opposed a government takeover, Mr. Obama said, but he added to some laughter, “I didn’t want government to get into the auto business. I have enough to do.”
“I want you to remember, though, that if some folks had their way, none of this would have been happening,” Mr. Obama said, without ever referring to Republicans. “This plant and your jobs might not exist.”
Afterward, workers were happy to tell their stories of newfound hope.
“There’s still a little fear here,” Peter Orlando, 46, said. “But a little fear is a good thing” to motivate people. Naming senators from the South that opposed the bailout, he added, “The people that naysayed us, I’d like them to come and work in our shoes for eight hours.”
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