Palin: Obama Closes Soldotna GM Dealership

I've been laying off of our governor since the election - there are plenty of other Alaskan bloggers who have fun with Sarah, and Lord knows, she gives them plenty of material.

And she just keeps on giving. I'll jump in because she mentions Soldotna in her most recent press release.

According to Governor Palin, "Today, we learned that Obama’s decisions continue to impact Alaskans; while we as taxpayers now own General Motors, Obama closes another dealership – this time in Soldotna as more of Alaskans’ hard-earned money and jobs are lost to big government."

I got to thinking. Didn't the Peninsula Clarion run a story about Hutchings GM just a few days ago? Yep, May 10 in fact. It seems the Governor's statement isn't quite accurate. While Hutchings lost its franchise, it isn't closing. The dealership did employ around 75 workers back in the fall, 10 days before today's statement, its workforce was down to 28.

GM has been having difficulty since way before Obama became president as their last profitable year was in 2004. Since then they have lost $82 billion dollars. Any company bleeding that much red ink might just cut back their workforce - especially those franchises that aren't as profitable as others. The auto industry has lost some 400,000 this past year - some of that was bound to trickle down to the Kenai.

So, despite Palin's rhetoric, the dealership isn't closing, and the local layoffs occurred because of financial difficulty GM has been having for 5 years. Layoffs are a natural part of what happens when there is a downturn in the economy or if a company like GM makes bad business decisions.

So just how is that Obama's fault?

The debate whether the US Government should be bailing out a business won't be addressed here - there are plenty of pundits who can provide you with that entertainment.

But if the US doesn't bail out GM, wouldn't that mean that the company would go bankrupt and close ALL of their dealerships? And is that a better choice? What would Sarah say then - that Obama's inactions continue to impact Alaskans?

If she had offered an alternative suggestion on what should be done, that would have been helpful, but of course she provided nothing of the sort. I've yet to hear any thanks to Obama from her as Alaska has accepted millions of dollars in federal stimulus funds to create jobs here.

The GM rescue is not strictly Democrat/Republican thing, here's a statement in support of GM's bailout from Darrell Issa, R-Calif., the ranking member on the House Committee on Oversight and Government Reform and maybe with a bit more understanding of the problem than Sarah. "We all recognize the role these companies play in the overall composition of our economy and we want them to succeed. It has become abundantly clear that in order to remain viable and competitive, these companies must re-organize, revamp and restructure."