GOP tells ‘Big Lie’ about ‘Big Three’

This week, Mitt Romney and Paul Ryan will take the national stage in Tampa in order to sell their vision of the future to America. As Mitt Romney’s record and rhetoric regarding the auto industry makes clear, there’s going to be whole lot of lying going on.

Three years ago, America’s “Big Three” automakers were in crisis. The industry’s future and with it the Valley’s were in jeopardy. Ohio’s auto plants, including Lordstown, supply chain industries, even the diners that feed autoworkers when their shifts end were in danger of closing. Tens of thousands of jobs were hanging in the balance. Valley residents remember these troubling times very well.

Obama’s response

Fortunately, President Obama and his economic team understood that the collapse of the domestic automobile industry would devastate the economy. They met with the management of the “Big Three,” the UAW and other unions, and the financial community and developed a strategy that saved the automakers — and the American Dream for the millions of people across the country who depend on them.

What were Republicans doing while the president and congressional Democrats like Sen. Sherrod Brown and Rep. Tim Ryan were working tirelessly to save thousands of jobs in the Valley? We wish the answer was a simple “nothing.” But the fact is GOP congressional leaders like Richard Shelby were actively working to kill the president’s plan while Mitt Romney spent his time writing an op-ed stating that we should just “Let Detroit Go Bankrupt.” Of course, along with Detroit, the Mahoning Valley and hundreds of communities across the United States would have gone bankrupt as well — a catastrophe that didn’t appear to bother Romney at all.

Because the president refused to bow to the Republicans who opposed his plan, GM — and the Valley’s economy — are in the midst of a remarkable comeback. Over the past three years 4,500 men and women have been working three shifts a day to produce the Chevy Cruze. In recognition of their outstanding performance, GM announced last week that it is investing hundreds of millions of dollars in the Lordstown plant so it can produce the next generation of the popular vehicle. That means Lordstown’s future and the Valley’s economy are secure through at least 2019.

Given Mitt Romney’s enormous blunder, it’s not surprising that he avoids talking about the auto industry at all costs and that when he does talk about it he lies. For example, earlier this year, he said during an appearance on Cleveland TV that he “takes a lot of credit” for the resurgence of the auto industry. Romney’s claim was so absurd that independent fact checkers immediately debunked it.

Auto dealers

Then, Romney aired a TV ad stating that the president’s plan to save the “Big Three” harmed Ohio’s auto dealers. The ad totally ignored the fact that allowing the industry to go bankrupt as Romney advised, could have erased entire segments of the industry. It also failed to note that thanks to the bold action taken by President Obama and congressional Democrats, 2,200 more Ohioans are employed in car dealerships today than when he took office.

Now it appears that newly-anointed GOP pick Paul Ryan is joining Romney in telling whoppers about the auto industry. Last week Ryan said the president’s plan had failed because a GM plant in his hometown of Janestown, Wisc., closed. The truth is, GM announced in 2008 that the plant was going to be shuttered, its doom sealed by the effects of the Bush recession. It was during Bush’s presidency that the plant began to close down.

It’s troubling to note that Romney’s lies about the auto industry mirror his distortions on other aspects of the economy, including his ridiculous claims that a return to failed GOP policies that favor Wall Street over Main Street will, somehow, produce a different result for the American families they damaged in the past.

This brings us to the clear choice the Valley has in this election. A choice between President Obama who fought successfully to save the jobs of Valley autoworkers and strengthen our economy and Mitt Romney’s failed trickle-down policies that threaten to place the American Dream out of reach for future generations.

David J. Betras, an attorney, is chairman of the Mahoning County Democratic Party.