Obama says taxpayers will recover money spent on auto bail out

(July 29, 2010) President Barack Obama said in an interview broadcast today that the U.S. government will recover taxpayer money spent to bail out the auto industry, accordng to the Automotive News.

The auto industry “tells a good story” of how the United States is rebounding from the worst recession since the 1930s, Obama said during an appearance on the ABC daytime program "The View."

The program was taped Wednesday in New York.

In exchange for U.S. bailout money that reached $85 billion, the auto industry has been restructured, and “you now have all those auto companies showing a profit," Obama said.

“They've re-hired 55,000 workers,” he said. “We are going to get all the money back that we invested.”

To tout the auto industry's recovery, the president is scheduled to visit General Motors Co. and Chrysler Group LLC auto plants in Michigan on Friday.

"That progress is significant, but we've still got a long way to go before we're all the way back," Obama said. "And the best thing is we're now creating an entirely new clean energy, clean car technology around advanced batteries and whatnot that will make us a world leader,” he added.

The White House issued a five-page report on the state of the auto industry today.

"In the year before GM and Chrysler emerged from bankruptcy, the auto industry shed 334,000 jobs," the report said, citing the Bureau of Labor Statistics. "In the year since, auto industry employment has increased by 55,000 jobs. This is the fastest year-over-year growth in auto employment since 1999."