Obama May Name Auto Czar
President-elect Barack Obama has raised the idea of appointing what is being called an auto czar to oversee emergency federal aid to automakers. Reportedly, this czar would also exact tough corporate reforms and ensure that taxpayers earn a return on any investment in the auto industry, according to The Detroit News (TND).
The Obama transition team hasn′t identified who the car czar would be, but the president-elect has three auto advisers. They are Jason Furman, an economist, Dan Tarullo, Georgetown University Law School, and Joshua Steiner, a former Clinton administration official. Michigan Gov. Jennifer Granholm and former Michigan Congressman David Bonior also are advising Obama on the troubled auto industry.
It would be helpful, though not essential, for such an appointee to have an intimate knowledge of the auto industry or at least assemble a panel of expert advisers, David Cole, chairman of the Center for Automotive Research in Ann Arbor, told TDN. It can′t be some ideologue or someone with an ax to grind or someone who read about the auto industry in a pamphlet two years ago, Cole said.
A car czar could serve as a point person for federal agencies that deal with automakers, such as treasury, labor, transportation departments, and the EPA, Cole said. A czar also could represent taxpayers and explain how the government could reap a profit on any federal loans.
Sen. Carl Levin, (D-Mich.) said in an interview he supports the idea of Obama naming an auto czar or a manufacturing czar. “Hopefully the Obama administration will really jump in with both feet to protect American manufacturing jobs, Sen. Levin said. But he didn′t know how the oversight of any federal aid to automakers would be designed and wouldn′t have a problem with Obama naming a point person on autos.
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