Obama to carmakers: ‘You Can’t Just Make Money on SUVs and Trucks’
Alternate title: Man with no economics or managerial or marketing background, on the verge of launching a “jobs” bus tour to distract the nation from his own wretched record on jobs, scolds US industry for building products Americans will actually buy:
The country’s automakers should ditch their focus on SUVs and trucks in favor of smaller, more fuel-efficient vehicles, President Obama said Monday.
“You can’t just make money on SUVs and trucks,” Obama said during a town hall forum in Cannon Falls, Minn. “There is a place for SUVs and trucks, but as gas prices keep on going up, you have got to understand the market. People are going to try to save money.”
And then, there’s this.
“When I came into office they were talking about the liquidation of GM and Chrysler, and a lot of folks said you can’t help them, and it’s a waste of the government’s money to try and help them,” Obama said Monday. “But what I said was, we can’t afford to lose up to a million jobs in this country, particularly in the Midwest.”
He’s right about not being able to afford losing all those jobs of course, but his own policies are killing jobs by the hundreds of thousands across many industries. And despite that, Obama feels perfectly qualified, in the face of his complete lack of experience, to tell these companies what they should and shouldn’t be building. It seems Obama finds a new way to re-define “arrogance” just about every week.
Well..Reagan re-configured the economy, and his background was co-starring in B movies with monkeys; GWBush, past alcohlic and coke-head and the guy who ran an MLB team into the black implemented a phase shoft in tax policy…where was your judgement then? Your a good partisan, but a poor reporter.
Running a business “into the black” is a bad thing now?
According to liberals, running something into the black is bad, because you are somehow taking money from the poor and giving it to the rich, who didn’t earn it even though they started the business and took the risk and spent their money, and, uh, um, they did bad things, and um, you know, BUSH!!!!
Digger, is your ignorance showing???
That’s also racist, you know.
Digger..RR did not reconfigure the economy. He reduced gov’t interference with it, but did not change the fundamental relationships between capital, producers and consumers. The economy was allowed to more freely operate and the results (unparelled expansion!)cannot be contested, short of denying reality.
Dubba did not change change the tax code – he altered the rates within the current code. The results were economic expansion.
Libs did change the economy. Fannie, Freddie, credit to those with no ability to repay, and an entitlement culture that places little value on production, education and self-reliance – see English riots for a recap.
I enjoy reading liberal comments. Name calling takes the place of measured rational discussion – why? Wishes cannot change laws of economics any more than they can change the laws of physics.
Thanks, CC. Your position is well-written and soundly reasoned. That’s why Libs hate people like you and articles like this.
Try actually reading a biography of Ronald Reagan some time. He was a lifeguard, with credit for 77 saved lives; Captain in the U.S. Army; president of the Screen Actor’s Guild; and Governor of California (http://reagan2020.us/biography/ronald_reagan.asp, http://www.biography.com/articles/Ronald-Reagan-9453198?part=1). Hardly a dilettante.
Hey Obama, the car companies have to sell products that people will actually buy. The car companies offer plenty of tiny, dangerous vehicles. People don’t buy those.
But if the car companies don’t offer vehicles that people will actually buy, they don’t have the revenues to pay workers (jobs).
That’s where jobs actually come from, buddy.
Only 125 Chevy Volts were sold in July. Enough said.
Hey Obama, the car companies have to sell products that people will actually buy. The car companies offer plenty of tiny, dangerous vehicles. People don’t buy those.
But if the car companies don’t offer vehicles that people will actually buy, they don’t have the revenues to pay workers (jobs).
You have to understand that concepts like markets, supply and demand, and consumer preferences are completely foreign to Obama. In his world, people are too stupid to make their own decisions. They must be told what to think, eat and buy. Companies don’t exist to make a profit but to maintain union jobs regardless of costs. If labor wants more money, the companies just have to raise their prices. If no one wants to buy their products, the government will distort the market with tax credits and “cash for klunkers.” If people can fit all of their family members into a Prius, then they shouldn’t have had so many kids. If they want to tow a boat or trailer, well, they shouldn’t because that’s just a waste of gasoline.
ObamaCare: The government orders us to purchase products we may not want (aka: healthcare coverage)
ObamaCar: The government tells us to stop buying products we DO want (aka: trucks, vans, SUVs)
Few or none of those auto jobs would have been lost in bankruptsy. Instead, GM and Chrylser would be been broken up, bought, and half a dozen new and innovative auto manufacturers would have emerged.
The entire world would be better off because of it.
Instead, the fascist government has confiscated billions from working Americans and lined the pockets of their crony capitalists and union thugs who continue to produce junk cars that nobody wants to buy.
The Volt is the poster child for fascism.
More likely, Chevy and Caddy soldier on as GM-lite. Buick gets sold to Chinese investors; they are already the biggest nameplate on the mainland. Everything else gets written off (Saturn, GMC) or sold at firesale prices (Hummer, SAAB). Interestingly, much of that seems to be happening already even after a few billion of TARP money got thrown at the problem.
“…as gas prices keep on going up, you have got to understand the market.”
Gas prices are going up because Barry “the Weasel” is interfering with the market.
The Chosen One creates problems so he can propose his government control-based solutions.
Being disingenuous and an economic cretin is a dangerous brew.
Exactly.
“but as gas prices keep on going up,[due explicitly to my policies],”
Yet another example of why Obama needs to be voted out of office in 2012… The arrogance on display is breathtaking.
But….but….you don’t understand! WE Are The Ones We’ve Been Waiting For….!
Dang! Where ARE those Greek columns???!!!!
I’ll say it again … if we are the ones we’ve been waiting for, what took us so jolly long??
After advising grateful managers how to maximize business and receiving their heartfelt thanks and unanimous approval, maximum leader went on to golf a perfect game of 18 holes-in-one. A new course record.
Oh, that’s nothing. Kim Jong-Il gets 19 holes-in-one all the time.
Our Dear Leader has visited golf courses near and far, searching for that elusive 19th hole.
We must help our Dear Leader by giving him lots of free time to search for it – beginning in January, 2013.
well, actually, they’re doing both. Relatively inexpensive (sorry, Volt) 40mpg small cars like Cruze, Festiva, Fiesta (to name a few) AND pickups and SUVs – which are moving away from pickup to car-based chassis partly because of fuel-economy concerns by the buying public. The Ford Explorer is one example – it used to be based on the Ranger pickup chassis and is now a unibody front wheel drive vehicle.
So they DO understand the market.
What was his point, anyway? To show he doesn’t have a clue? Or to force at the supply level what he hasn’t been able at the demand – to guide people into vehicles he thinks they should have rather than what they think they should have?
“SUVs – which are moving away from pickup to car-based chassis partly because of fuel-economy concerns by the buying public. ”
Not to mention that truck-based SUVs are a far-sight change in handling from drivers used to midsize cars. And a long distance ride on truck suspension can be a very jarring experience! So-called “crossovers” are a much easier adjustment and the car-like suspension is much more passenger-friendly.
He’s telling the car industry that they shouldn’t make so many SUVs and trucks. So I guess the American public is too stupid to decide what we can drive.
And he was standing in front of an audience in rural farming country.
Does Barry think that farmers pull machinery and livestock trailers around using a Prius?
Yes, Marco, Barry does think farmers SHOULD use Priuses, Volts, etc. The only reason they don’t is because they’re “bitter clingers.”
I understand BO’s next Really Big Green Jobs Idea is an electric tractor. Half the horsepower, twice the cost, a battery the size of Kansas and (just in case) the longest, bleepin’ powercord you’ve ever seen.
I am waiting for the solar powered aircraft carrier, it can only operate in the day and can’t carry planes because the flight deck is full of solar cells.