At a briefing today to discuss the administration’s efforts to rescue the auto industry, White House press secretary Robert Gibbs took on conservative radio host Rush Limbaugh—and every other critic “sitting in the cheap seats” –for criticizing the rescue of General Motors and Chrysler as a “government takeover” that smacks of socialism.
Told by a reporter that “You had Rush Limbaugh today — today or yesterday — talking Obama Motors again,” Gibbs, who doesn’t often provide free advertising by taking on his critics by name from the podium, let fire.
“Look, Rush Limbaugh and others wanted to walk away. Rush Limbaugh and others saw a million people that worked at these factories, that worked at these parts suppliers, that had — that supported communities, and thought we should all just walk away. The president didn’t think that walking away from a million jobs in these communities made a lot of economic sense,” Gibbs said.
He was just getting up to speed.
“We’ve got auto companies that for the first time since 2004 all showed an operating profit in the first quarter of this year. It’s adding jobs. And the money that this administration invested — about $60 billion — we believe we’re on the path to recouping all of that. That’s a significant story.
“I’ll let those that sat in the cheap seats a year-and-a-half ago and wanted to walk away” from a milion workers, he continued, “explain to every one of those workers why they made that decision.”
Finally, he wrapped it up: “And then you should ask Mr. Limbaugh — I don’t know what kind of car he drives, but I bet it’s not an F-150.”
The F-150 truck, we should note, is made by Ford, which didn’t get federal rescue funds.
(Source: WSJ)
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10 Responses
bet it’s not GM (government motors) either
the sad house of the obama are runig scared with the crazy left for there lives trying to show that they care about the american people but we do know the truth they just care about them selfs and ther owne money
Let’s give credit where it is due. The bail-out of both Chrysler and GM so far appear to have been a good decision.
that last comment shows the knee jerk right wing attitude of the yeshivish community. get some perspective and acknowledge that this bailout, at least, made sense and is working. Ford may not have needed the money, but they too benefit from the non-implosion of the USA auto industry. Thank goodness this president didnt cave to you guys.
Voice of Sanity, and who is paying for these bailouts? The president’s royalties on his two books?
oh yes so concerned. anyone remember cash for clunkers did you ever think about how much that hurt american car sales?
I’d say that Rush pretty much laid Ol Gibbs away with his response today.
Frum yiddin, and Socialism, how pathetic!
Once again Rush has taken the Regime and played with them like a cat plays with a mouse. The Regime is wound so tight waiting to fight back over comments made by anyone in TalkRadio. Dont tell me they arent running scared.
The Chevy Volt, President Obama and Rush Limbaugh.
Electric cars are a mess, according to Rush and Charles. Rush said it is “nothing more than an expensive way to promote the environmentalist agenda,” as Politico.com summarized his views. Rush has singled out the Chevy Volt, a car he claims has limited technology and a steep price tag. Limbaugh seems unable to grasp the fact that over time technology improves and becomes far more affordable. The first cell phone, for example, cost $4,000, weighed two pounds and could only go 30 minutes on a charge, according to msnbc.com. Nowadays, cell phones weigh just ounces and are given out for free by service providers.
I’ll bet that back in the 1980s, before he was famous, Rush probably marveled at the brick-sized cell phone used by Michael Douglas’ character Gordon Geckko in the movie “Wall Street.” Rush probably pulled out his three-pound, first-generation handheld calculator, did the math, and concluded that only rich Wall St. titans like Gekko could ever hope to afford big, cumbersome cell phone technology.
On the way home, Rush likely bemoaned the fact that he’ll have to shell out money for movie tickets for the rest of his life since devices that allow people to watch movies at home were rather expensive and would always be that way. Good thing it was a short trip, because his bulky Walkman only stored a single cassette tape – not that portable music devices could ever be capable of storing thousands of songs and fit in the palm of your hand or anything.
Once home, Rush no doubt sat down to play Pong on his TV, thinking how unfortunate it is that video games will never catch on because the graphics would always be so crummy. But, hey, it beat watching television since it could never be possible for a TV to get more than just the same four old channels.
Rush would have played on his computer, but computers had, and would always have, so little memory, which makes them kinda boring. “ If only there were a way to get news and entertainment over a computer,” Rush undoubtedly mused. “Nah, it could never happen.”