Mitt Romney: Get the Government Out of the Auto Industry

Topics:  General Motors

Governor Mitt Romney
February 23, 2012

WJR Radio
February 23, 2012

FRANK BECKMANN: "Alright, because time is short, I want to jump very quickly—people are still—I'm amazed that your stance on GM and Chrysler and the restructuring continues to be misrepresented. I can't tell you how many times we have played your comments from our show, reread your actual words from the New York Times piece that's now the subject of all this revisionist history, but here's my question for you: How will the government's role in the General Motors oversight change if you're elected? For instance, are you going to continue to limit executive compensation? What will do you then?"

MITT ROMNEY: "Well, what I would do is immediately distribute the shares that the government has in GM to the public. Either that or sell the shares and have the proceeds go back to reducing the deficit. But the idea that the government continues to hold shares in General Motors and calls the shots there is not consistent with American free enterprise. General Motors ought to be run by its Board of Directors and its shareholders, like every other company and this insistence by the government that they get to tell General Motors what kind of cars to build and where to build them is an enormous mistake and has the potential of imperiling a company that can be successful. Look the reason these companies got in trouble was because the unions asked for too much; the management gave in too often and made some enormous mistakes of their own; the government put in place CAFE requirements that were disadvantageous for domestic manufacturers. We need to get the government out of these companies' hair and let them go to work to become competitive—not only in the U.S. but globally. The world is changing in the auto industry and we've got to get these companies on a global footing as opposed to kowtowing to Washington."