Hoekstra questions Washington’s response to auto crisis

U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra said that the White House plan to help the struggling auto industry is off track. (Congressional photo)

U.S. Rep. Pete Hoekstra, who announced earlier this week that he was entering the race for the GOP nomination for governor in 2010, thinks the White House doesn’t have what it takes to resuscitate Detroit’s beleaguered auto industry and that top congressional Democrats would rather be rid of the nation’s manufacturing sector.

In an interview with Michigan Messenger on Thursday, the Holland Republican, who has represented Michigan’s 2nd Congressional District since 1993, accused the Obama administration of “micro-managing” both General Motors Corp. and Chrysler’s road to recovery just a day after the president’s auto task force director, Ed Montgomery, visited Lansing to meet with Gov. Jennifer Granholm and her top advisers.

Hoekstra, 55, took particular issue with Obama’s announcement on Monday that he was firing GM chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner.

“I’m nervous about this administration’s handling of the auto situation,” the congressman said. “How is the president in a better position to fire someone than the stockholders?”

One of Hoekstra’s fellow Michigan Republicans, U.S. Rep. Dave Camp of Midland, said on Monday that it made sense for Wagoner to step down. Camp, who sits on the Ways and Means Committee, told Dow Jones Newswires: “It was well-known that GM’s restructuring plan would have to be significant. It was going to be difficult for the current management to carry that out.”

Hoekstra said he didn’t agree with his Republican colleague, U.S. Rep. Connie Mack of Florida, who said he wants Obama to fire UAW President Ron Gettelfinger because the union was just as responsible for the woes at GM as Wagoner is.

“What should have happened is they should have gotten Gettelfinger and Wagoner in a room and worked it out,” he said of the administration. “They have more influence on their shareholders and members than anyone else.”

Along with every member of Michigan’s congressional delegation, Hoekstra voted for the auto bailout bill of last December, which provided $13.4 billion to GM and $4 billion to Chrysler.

Hoekstra added that Michigan seems to be forgotten in the political discourse surrounding the domestic auto industry in Washington, D.C., criticizing top congressional Democrats like House Speaker Nancy Pelosi of California and House Finance Committee Chairman Rep. Barney Frank of Massachusetts for being “more interested in getting rid of the manufacturing industry than keeping it.”