Obama Auto Bailout Has Created 10 Times More Jobs Than Romney Ever Did

Last updated on August 10th, 2014 at 04:43 pm

Mitt Romney may have only created 10,000 jobs while at Bain Capital, but the Obama auto industry bailout that Romney opposed has created 170,000 jobs since 2009.

According to the White House,

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Today, the American auto industry is coming back, creating jobs and moving cars off the line. Last month, the automotive industry added nearly 11,000 positions, bringing the total number of jobs added in the fourth quarter of 2011 to 36,000. The industry added 100,000 jobs over the course of 2011.

Since Chrysler and GM emerged from bankruptcy in June of 2009, the auto industry has added back more than 170,000 jobs, the best period of job growth in more than a decade. While there’s more work to be done, it’s clear the auto industry is moving in the right direction.

In December, we saw auto sales climb for the seventh consecutive month. The Big Three — Ford, GM and Chrysler — all saw sale increases for December, and the year as a whole.

Back in 2009 Mitt Romney wrote an op-ed in The New York Times that predicted a bailout would kill the auto industry, “If General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye. It won’t go overnight, but its demise will be virtually guaranteed.”

Romney continued to defend his opposition to saving the auto industry as recently as November of 2011, but even fellow Republican, Michigan Gov. Rick Snyder believes that the auto industry bailout worked.

Three days ago, Mitt Romney again claimed that he created 100,000 jobs while at Bain, “In the business I had, we invested in over 100 different businesses and net-net, taking out the ones where we lost jobs and those that we added, those businesses have now added over 100,000 jobs.” When The Washington Post fact checked Romney’s claim they found that when he ran for Senate in 1994, he stated that he created 10,000 jobs while at Bain. In almost 18 years, Mitt Romney job creation claims have miraculously grown tenfold.

The reality is that the real number of jobs created by Romney is likely 10,000. This means that the auto bailout, which the candidate who claims that he can fix the economy opposed, has created ten times more jobs than Mitt Romney ever did in the private sector. It isn’t about how many jobs Romney created while at Bain. The point is that Mitt Romney was, and continues to be, wrong about the auto bailout.

The auto bailout worked. It not only saved hundreds of thousands of jobs, but it has created 170,000 new ones. If Mitt Romney was in charge of the economy, those jobs wouldn’t exist. Romney wanted the auto companies to go through bankruptcy so that the auto unions could be busted, which underscores Mitt Romney’s approach to the economy.

Romney is about creating jobs. He only thinks in terms of increasing profits for the one percent. His economic perspective is based on creating wealth for those at the top. Mitt Romney may be trying to sell himself as a job creator, but only Barack Obama was brave enough to take the risk that saved the auto industry.

Obama is a job creator, and Mitt Romney will always be a job cremator.

Image: Electronic Village

Jason Easley

Jason is the managing editor. He is also a White House Press Pool and a Congressional correspondent for PoliticusUSA. Jason has a Bachelor’s Degree in Political Science. His graduate work focused on public policy, with a specialization in social reform movements.

Awards and  Professional Memberships

Member of the Society of Professional Journalists and The American Political Science Association