WASHINGTON — In a politically sizzling attack, President Barack Obama accused his Republican presidential challengers Tuesday of abandoning the American worker, and he took credit for the auto industry’s resurgence while singling out GOP opposition to the taxpayer-backed rescue of General Motors and Chrysler that he helped engineer.
Speaking to a raucous United Auto Workers audience, Obama said that assertions by Republican presidential candidates that union members profited from the taxpayer-paid rescue are a “load of you know what.”
Even though Obama did not mention his critics by party or by name, the delivery and content had all the makings of a political stump speech. Even the timing had political overtones, delivered just as voters in Michigan — a center of auto manufacturing — went to the polls in the state’s Republican nominating contest.
Union president Bob King praised Obama as “the champion of all workers” who “saved our jobs and saved our industry,” an introduction that elicited chants of “four more years!” from an estimated 1,700 UAW members.
In highlighting the auto industry’s comeback, Obama drew a distinct contrast with Republicans Mitt Romney and Rick Santorum, both of whom have said they would not have used government money to save GM and Chrysler.
As recently as Sunday, Romney said that Obama favored the UAW in the bailout and that the president was “paying off the people that supported him.” Santorum has expressed a similar sentiment.
Obama noted that under the agreement to use taxpayer money to save GM and Chrysler, union members had to agree to reduced wages and thousands of retirees saw reductions in their health care benefits.
“But they’re still talking about you as if you’re some special interest that needs to be beaten down,” Obama said.
Obama’s speech came as auto sales are surging, on a pace to exceed 14 million this year. Automakers and parts companies added more than 38,000 jobs last year, with industry employment averaging 717,000 for 2011. And automakers have announced plans to add another 13,000 jobs this year.
Obama was not alone in helping the automakers. President George W. Bush, faced with a reluctant Congress, directed more than $17 billion in emergency loans to GM and Chrysler in his final weeks in office. Bush demanded that the companies reduce their debt, negotiate wage and benefit cuts with workers, and submit plans to achieve long-term viability.
