Romney Camp Refuses To Answer Questions About Its False Claims About Jeep Moving All Production To China

Mitt Romney is so desperate to win Ohio that he is continuing the falsehood that Jeep plans to move all its production to China, the implication being that President Obama is responsible for those who will lose jobs as a result. And the campaign refuses to set the record straight.

A spokesman for the Republican presidential candidate declined to answer questions about the candidate’s incorrect reading of a news report that Chrysler was considering moving all Jeep production to China.

Romney’s comments came late Thursday in Defiance, Ohio, just hours after the Free Press reported that 1,100 new Chrysler workers will help boost production of the Jeep Grand Cherokee and Dodge Durango SUVs in Detroit beginning next week.

Also, Chrysler is investing $500 million to upgrade its plant in Toledo to build the replacement for the Jeep Liberty and is in the process of hiring 1,105 additional workers that are expected to start next fall.

Romney continues the lie, even after Jeep commented on his falsehood.

“Let’s set the record straight: Jeep has no intention of shifting production of its Jeep models out of North America to China,” Gualberto Ranieri, Chrysler’s vice president of communications, said in a blog on the company’s website.

A Bureau of Labor Statistics chart in The New Republic shows how the bailout that Romney opposed helped the auto industry.

According to the Bureau of Labor of Statistics, the number of autoworkers fell almost in half between 2002 and 2009, from around 1.1 million to around 600,000, as the industry was in something like a death spiral. Then, as Chrysler and GM were on the brink of true collapse, the Obama Administration stepped in with federal loans and a managed bankruptcy. Almost immediately, the automobile manufacturing sector started growing again. Since July, 2009, the workforce has risen by about 150,000 jobs and that’s purely in manufacturing. If you include parts manufacturing and other related jobs, it’s 250,000.

And that’s the net increase. By providing Chrysler and GM with the financing they needed to avoid liquidation, the Obama Administration prevented those companies from putting more people out of work Overall, according to estimates by the Center for Automotive Research, the rescue probably saved at least a million jobs.

By: Alan

Alan Colmes is the publisher of Liberaland.