Toyota: Caught in Obama’s Cross Hairs

10 Feb, 2010 | Written by Marty Griffith | under Politics

It was only a matter of time until the first instance would come about where the government’s ownership of GM and Chrysler would drive the Obama administration to try to kill off competition. Bill Burton, White House spokesman, insisted that the government’s majority ownership of GM and part ownership of Chrysler, “would not have any impact on this administration’s commitment to making sure that Americans are kept safe on our roads.” So straight from the White House there is no conflict of interest here. Give me a major break!

Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood was testifying in front of a House Appropriations subcommittee when he decided to advise Toyota drivers on what to do.

“My advice is, if anybody owns one of these vehicles, stop driving it,” he said at the 10 a.m. hearing. “Take it to a Toyota dealer because they believe they have a fix for it.”

This of course caused bedlam in Toyota dealerships across the country as drivers of Toyotas stopped driving them and took them into dealerships who will not have the parts to begin making fixes until next week. Toyota was scheduling to fix this accelerator problem through mail outs to 2.3 million Toyota owners. They are not prepared to deal with them all at once as the Transportation Secretary seemed to suggest. Millions clamoring to their dealership only to find out that the parts were not in and also to find long lines, left Toyota dealerships overwhelmed and customers totally dissatisfied with Toyota and skeptical about the company’s integrity in this matter.

Secretary LaHood did offer a clarification of his statement before the subcommittee by saying, “What I meant to say, what I thought I said, was if you own one of these cars, take it to the dealer,” he said. “If you’re in doubt, take it to the dealership today and have them look at it and have them fix it”.

So he cleared up his previous statement by saying basically the same thing. “If you own one of these cars, take it to the dealer”. He left off the part about stop driving it, but he left the dealerships in the same bad position of having drivers come in without being scheduled for the fix, and without parts for the fix. People tend to trust the government. Why they do, I can not figure out.

This moron obviously should not be in a position of power. Besides the grief he caused to the general public, he also caused this company’s stock to plummet. Is he just an idiot or does he have an axe to grind with Toyota because they dare to compete with GM, Government Motors? Either way, the result is the same. The statist never sees wrong done by himself and never examines his own motives. Through contempt of free enterprise, stupidity, or just ineptness this lunkhead of a transportation secretary caused undo stress for millions.

Did he call Toyota to ask what their plan is for this recall? Maybe he felt it was not his place as a competitor, since Obama is basically the CEO of GM, and a direct competitor of Toyota. Maybe he acted maliciously since his government is a direct competitor of Toyota? I don’t know his motives, but I do know that the results of a government owned corporation or industry is an idea that only statists would think is a good one. Obama said that he doesn’t want to be in the automobile industry, but he is in it. Since when did a bailout mean that the government takes over an industry? That isn’t a bailout, it is a buy out and GM was not even for sale.

Toyota had a plan in place to recall and fix these automobiles. They were already acting in good faith with regard to owning up to the problem, finding out the cause and putting a plan and schedule in place to repair the affected vehicles. The statist cannot wait to impose his power on corporations just to show who is really in charge.

Exit Question: Are we going to throw out the Democrats in 2010 so that we can send a message to the Marxist, statists that enough is enough and we want, no, we demand to have our country back???