GOP To Cite Fisker Auto Maker as Argument Against Obama
Republican National Committee Chairman Reince Priebus will spearhead an effort to re-focus attention on the 2009 economic stimulus and instances where American money was used by companies doing business overseas.
Priebus will make the argument at an event in Philadelphia and focus specifically on Fisker, the start-up electric car company that received part of a $529 million federal government loan guarantee from the Obama Administration.
A recent TV ad produced by Mitt Romney's presidential campaign lumps Fisker in with failed solar panel manufacturer Solyndra.
Fisker has not gone bankrupt like Solyndra, but hit has not yet carried through on plans to begin assembling cars in a U.S. manufacturing plant either. Fisker purchase a shuttered General Motors plant in Delaware with government help, and predicted it would one day employ 2,000 auto workers to assemble the clean-burning gas-electric family car, known as the Atlantic. Those plans were already behind schedule when the company's unsteady financial footing prompted the Department of Energy to freeze their loan payments. The car company has continued to receive private financing and now says it will consider looking elsewhere - including overseas - for a cheaper place to produce its vehicles.
Of its initial $529 million loan guarantee, Fisker has so far received $169 million in federal funds. That money was used for the Karma, a $100,000 hybrid sports sedan that was assembled in Finland and is being championed by the owner of the very first Karma - Leonardo DiCaprio. The company recently went public with its design for the less expensive Atlantic - but it is likely to be years before that car is ready for the showroom .
Read more about Fisker from ABC's Investigative Unit
"This is just another example of the president's record of sending jobs overseas when he promised Stimulus efforts would create jobs here in America," RNC spokesperson Kirsten Kukowski.
Priebus will also focus on the news that the president's job council hasn't met in six months as well as continuing to blast the president for " you didn't build that " comments about entrepreneurs and businesses. Obama made the point that businesses rely on government services like roads and education. But the Romney campaign has seized on the comments as evidence that the president is anti-capitalist.
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