Comment: Automotive recovery bolsters case for government action

Oct 31, 2011 | 07:00 PM | John Ambrosia

Tags  economic recovery, automotive market, AMM Comment, John Ambrosia,

In modern America at least, economic recovery requires bipartisanship; better yet would be nonpartisanship. Paradoxically, this becomes truer in clearly divided political times such as today.

Yet nearly since the darkest days of the 2008-09 recession—the worst since the Great Depression, and a downturn we’re still reeling from—what America mostly has gotten from its federal government is partisan bickering rather than consensus and a joint resolve to create jobs, rebuild infrastructure and spur manufacturing.

In the December 2010 issue, just after the mid-term elections, I wrote about how the potential gridlock of the 112th Congress might make the alleged uncertainty created by the actions and standstills of the 111th Congress look like a golden age. Well, one near-catastrophe (the April threat of a government shutdown) and one nearer-catastrophe (the debt ceiling debate and subsequent downgrading of the U.S. credit rating) later, and that prediction already has come true.

The year is nearly over, and we haven’t seen a single jobs bill or other major economic program make it through Congress and reach the President’s desk. It’s been like fighting a raging fire without a drop of water, a fire engine or even a ladder.....