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Obama promises to help Detroit 3, encourages hybrids

 
8 647 views Feb 14, 2008

Obama promises to help Detroit 3, encourages hybrids

Obama promises to help Detroit 3, encourages hybrids

During a speech at GM’s oldest running production plant, U.S. presidential candidate Barack Obama made it clear that he will help the Detroit 3 and the economy in general. This is in contrast to his previous criticisms towards the domestic carmakers, especially in regards to low-mileage SUVs that the Detroit 3 is famous for. Obama’s plan is to increase spending in the construction and environmental industries, and help create millions of new jobs and a need for pickup trucks and SUVs. At the same time, Obama vowed to help the domestic auto industry to a more fuel-efficient future.

"I believe that if our government is there to support you, and give you the assistance you need to retool and make this transition, that this plant will be here for another hundred years," Obama said in his speech. Some of his measures include spending $210 billion to create jobs in construction and environmental industries, $150 billion for 5 million "green-collar" jobs to develop more environmentally friendly energy, and $60 billion to rebuild highways, bridges, airports and other projects, reports The Detroit News.

Previously, Obama was critical of carmakers, stating that they had to change their current path. "For too long, we've been either too afraid to ask our automakers to meet higher fuel standards or unwilling to help them do it," he said during a May speech.

As for hybrid vehicles, Obama talked of a “clean energy economy” and said that he believed if the government is there to support and give assistance to the Detroit 3 they could be around for the next one hundred years.



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Comments (8)

  1. By Gus Posted: 2/14/2008 9:53am PST

    He seems to think that getting elected means promising everything to everyone.
     
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  2. By CraigS Posted: 2/14/2008 10:28am PST

    He's full of it!! If a business in failing due to terrible products and lousy quality then how is the government boing to pursaude the public to buy them? They need to help themselves by building better products then people will buy them.

    These are flase campaign promises spoken like a true politician
     
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  3. By chris Posted: 2/14/2008 12:17pm PST

    craigs, the government can help the big 3 by stopping a lot of their incentive programs aimed at getting foreign business to do business in america. thats right. the government provides a lot of incentives to foreign car makers to do business in america, as the local boys get pounded. these are old policies that were brought about in the 70's when no one ever thought toyota would be making 10 million cars a year.

    and yes i think its a really good idea for the government to support the american auto industry in what ever way they can. millions of jobs are in the auto sector. millions of jobs feeding probably tens of millions of mouths. auto is the only big manufacturing that the USA has left. the problem isnt in build quality but in design quality and that situation has been addressed by GM and ford by using global design teams ot design flexible systems that can be used in many products... and then design them VERY well. historically this wasn't done. and because japan has lower costs associated with manufacturing (their labor work much harder and for much less money than americans would.. union or not). this led to even more money being spent on better designs.

    the tables are turning, and last year ford was rated nearly identical in build quality as toyota... as reported on THIS site. if things continue through this year.. i expect to see ford overtake toyota in build quality in the same survey. toyota has been losing this build quality and ford has been increasing their quality.

    american automotive is a very good sector to invest in.
     
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  4. By CraigS Posted: 2/14/2008 1:21pm PST

    Chris,

    I'm not argiung that they can/do build better product but they don't sell them here in North America because of the average idiot (even they are changing) that says I'll only buy American despite that half of "American" made cars are built in Mexico or Canada. Instead of them building the lower quality cars for just the North American market why don't they import some of the great Ford product from Europe? Look at the lousy US Ford focus versus the great European Ford Focus.

    Also, its not just a matter of design quality, its the actual quality of the product being built. Inconsistent body panels, doors that don't shut properly etc. Toyota's quality on some products has fallen and that I think is because of their race to be number 1 auto producer/seller in the world. Apparently they're reeling that back in. Either way though, look at peoples perceptions of quality and GM/Chrysler are near the bottom and perceptions are very important in this industry....along with building not only quality products but also products people want which with the exception of Ford maybe the rest are lacking.
     
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  5. By James Posted: 2/14/2008 3:48pm PST

    As a European who have lived in US and now closely follows US presidential election build-up, I can say with full confidence that I believe Obama will be the best for the US and rest of the world alike. But then again - almost anyone will be better than Bush.
    As for Obama's stance to D3 - I think he's right. Americans need a push, some government support or something of that sort - to finally start making good and efficient cars. It's actually very mysterious, why American car makers suck so badly, when in so many other technological and scientific fields America is so great...
     
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  6. By HECTOR Posted: 2/14/2008 7:35pm PST

    It's never a good thing to mix politics with... anything else.

    As an American who lived in Europe I can say with full confidence that the Old World could greatly benefit from having a president like Bush, who has the balls to look reality in the face and do something about it without talking incessantly or kowtowing to the bad guys. Then again almost anyone will be better than the current crop of useless surrender monkeys in the EU.

    As for Obama's stance on the Big 3... doesn't this guy know anything about history and what happens when a government intervenes in the free market? Isn't that called socialism/communism, ideas proven wrong by history? Read something of what happened with Chrysler back in the early 80s (late 80s?) Barack and look where they're at the moment, a walking corpse that should have been buried a long time ago.
     
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  7. By CraigS Posted: 2/15/2008 7:53am PST

    Hector,

    What are you talking about? Bush is good? Where have you been hiding for the last 7 years? His type of politics died out with the dinosaur. His childish approach of attacking anyone that he doesn't like only causes instability in the world and reminds me of the tactics that Hitler used before WW2 started. It is people like you that elected then reelected this tyrant. Time to smell the coffee!
     
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  8. By James Posted: 2/15/2008 11:37am PST

    HECTOR - you're absolutely right!... Bush is A TRUE BLESSING FOR THIS WORLD!

    Let's see the facts:
    More than 80'000 dead civilian Iraqis (Iraq Body Count), 3'960 dead American soldiers (total number of dead coalition soldiers - 4'267), thousands and thousands of other deaths, no "weapons of mass destruction", more than 1 million Iraqis now without a home and ABSOLUTELY AND HOPELESSLY MESSED UP REGION. Nice job!

    My apologies for off topic
     
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