Columbus Examiner – U.S. Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) and former Democratic Ohio governor Ted Strickland used Tuesday’s announcement by Chrysler that it would repay $7.5 billion in loans to the federal government as a chance to both talk up President Obama’s chances to win the state and the White House again next year and to slap the many Republicans who wanted to let the Big 2 American automakers die a slow death, which would have sent Ohio’s unemployment rate even higher than it was at the height of the Great Recession.

Brown touts federal help to automakers

In November of 2008, Brown introduced the Auto Industry Emergency Bridge Loan Act, with a bipartisan group of colleagues, his office said in a release to media. In December 2008, Brown said he fought to ensure that funds from the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) were allocated to aid the Big 3 and American auto suppliers–despite near-unanimous opposition from most House and Senate Republicans. Brown said he applauded President Obama’s decision in 2009 to advance restructuring plans to ensure the viability of the American auto industry.

“From Chrysler’s Jeep assembly complex in Toledo, to hundreds of new positions at General Motors’ Toledo transmission facility, and three shifts of workers in Lordstown making the best-selling Chevy Cruze, the domestic auto industry is responsible for creating thousands of good-paying, middle-class Ohio jobs,” said Brown, who is running next year for a second six-year term. “Chrysler’s repayment of the bulk of its loan to the government is yet another sign that the American auto industry has made a stunning turnaround. There were defeatists and naysayers who wanted to let the American auto industry disintegrate, but we made the right decision to invest in these cornerstones of our economy. That decision is now paying dividends all across Ohio and the United States,” he said.

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