Day 70: Obama Lays Out Auto Plan

By: Brian Montopoli
Topics: White House

4903757On his seventieth day in office, President Obama laid out a plan for General Motors and Chrysler that gave both companies a limited about of time to restructure if they hope to secure further federal funding.

"I am announcing that my administration will offer GM and Chrysler a limited period of time to work with creditors, unions, and other stakeholders to fundamentally restructure in a way that would justify an investment of additional tax dollars; a period during which they must produce plans that would give the American people confidence in their long-term prospects for success," he said.

The president also signed a wilderness protection bill setting aside more than 2 million acres "to protect, preserve and pass down our nation's most treasured landscapes to future generations."

Check out Chip Reid's CBS Evening News report on the president's day below.

Brian Montopoli
Brian Montopoli is the senior political reporter at CBSNews.com.
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by petersema March 31, 2009 9:33 AM EDT: The Specialty Equipment Market Association (SEMA) applauds efforts to help consumers, automakers and dealerships with a program to stimulate new car sales. We support the concept of government?issued vouchers toward the purchase of fuel-efficient new vehicles and allowing consumers to deduct the car interest payments on their taxes.
However, SEMA continues to oppose tying these vouchers to vehicle scrappage programs, known as ?cash for clunkers.? The programs accelerate the demise of older vehicles, which are then typically crushed into blocks of sheet metal. Scrappage programs focus on a car's age rather than how much it is driven or its actual emissions. SEMA has consistently warned against wasting taxpayer dollars on a program that may produce an artificial spike in sales, but does not reduce emissions or increase fuel efficiency.
Automakers and dealers need to sell cars in order to survive, but potential buyers have hit the brakes in these tough economic times. Scrappage programs actually would deny vouchers to the majority of people who may want to buy a new car but don?t have an eligible older car to trade. Instead, these programs will be misused by those who own two or three older cars and seek to take advantage of the taxpayer give-away. Many of these cars aren?t frequently driven, if at all, so destroying them will not clean the nation?s air or make us less dependent on foreign oil.
While supporters tout a similar German program as evidence of success, the European Federation for Transport and the Environment, (the pan-European federation of environmental groups), has urged Germany and other countries to abandon scrappage subsidies because they do more environmental harm than good by artificially accelerating the car life cycle.
Scrappage programs hurt thousands of independent repair shops, auto restorers, customizers and their customers across the country. This industry provides thousands of American jobs and generates millions of dollars in local, state and federal tax revenues. We encourage the President to help the entire auto industry with programs that focus the incentive where it counts ? on the purchase of new vehicles and not destroying older cars.
ABOUT SEMA:
SEMA represents the $38.1 billion specialty automotive industry. Founded in 1963, the trade association has 7,358 member companies. It is the authoritative source of research data, trends and market growth information for automakers and the specialty auto products industry. The industry provides appearance, performance, comfort, convenience and technology products for passenger cars, minivans, trucks, SUVs, crossovers and recreational vehicles. For more information, contact SEMA at 1575 S. Valley Vista Dr., Diamond Bar, CA, 91765-3914; call 909/396-0289; or visit www.sema.org or www.enjoythedrive.com.; Reply to this comment

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