WASHINGTON — A check of the cars owned by members of President Barack Obama’s auto-industry task force indicates why America’s Big Three are in such trouble: A strong majority among the eight members and their top aides drive foreign brands, according to a survey released last week.
Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner drives a 2008 Acura TSX, while National Economic Council Director Larry Summers owns a 1995 Mazda Protege, according to the report by David Shepardson of The Detroit News. Geithner and Summers are the task force’s co-chairmen.
Office of Management and Budget Director Peter Orszag has a 2008 Honda and a 2004 Volvo, while Environmental Protection Agency chief Lisa Jackson has a fuel-stingy 2008 Toyota Prius.
White House climate empress Carol Browner doesn’t have a car, and neither does Energy Secretary Steven Chu. No car information was available for Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood or Christina Romer, head of the Council of Economic Advisers.
Looking at some of the task force’s top aides: Austan Goolsbee, staff director of the White House Economic Recovery Advisory Board, drives a 2004 Toyota Highlander; Joan DeBoer, chief of staff to LaHood, has a 2008 Lexus; Heather Zichal, deputy director of the White House office of climate change, owns a Volvo; Treasury counsel Gene Sperling owns a 2003 Lincoln; and Lisa Heinzerling, a senior counsel at EPA, has a 1998 Subaru.
Cody Lusk, president of the American International Automobile Dealers Association, pooh-poohed the findings, noting that “more than 50 percent of all ‘import’ cars sold in the U.S. each year are made in North America.”
