Mitt Romney insisted in Monday’s debate that the auto companies would not have been liquidated under his watch, even as he’s complained the billions of dollars in government aid used to rescue the industry was unnecessary. But Larry Summers, who served as a top economic aide to President Obama in his first year, told TPM his claim is a “fantasy” for a variety of reasons.Romney has said he would have saved money by relying on private finance to move the big three car companies through bankruptcy, although he’s been extremely vague as to how he would have reached that outcome without committing the vast federal resources that the Bush and Obama administrations did to achieve it. Romney claims that the two presidents overspent by billions of dollars by doling out federal loans when mere guarantees of some sort paired with an earlier bankruptcy might have gotten the job done for cheaper.
This is a companion discussion topic for the original entry at https://talkingpointsmemo.com/?p=94270