Mitt Romney: ‘Let Detroit Go Bankrupt’

In an editorial appearing in today’s New York Times, Michigan native and former Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney writes to Congress urging that they should not give “the Big 3” a bailout.

Romney starts his article by saying, “If General Motors, Ford and Chrysler get the bailout that their chief executives asked for yesterday, you can kiss the American automotive industry goodbye.”

The son of former Michigan Governor George Romney goes on to write that “Detroit needs a turnaround, not a check.”

Romney also recounts how his father was tapped to run American Motors in 1954, when the company’s president died. He says he remembers how his father worked to turn the company around, something, Romney says, people were still talking about years later when he was in business school.

Romney’s editorial makes several arguments as to why the bailout should be rejected. First he argues that it would help reduce the differences in cost between American cars and their foreign competitors brands. Romney sites retiree benefits as something that must be reduced, if the Big 3 are going to be competitive.

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